Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine: Due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, 1,271 objects of cultural infrastructure were damaged

As of January 25, 2023, as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine, 1,271 objects of cultural infrastructure were damaged, excluding monuments of cultural heritage. Almost a third of them (473 objects) were destroyed. This was reported by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Over the past month, 82 objects have been added to the total number of affected objects of cultural infrastructure, which is kept by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. More than half of them are objects in the de-occupied territories of Kherson region, and another third are in active combat zones in Donetsk region.

According to the assessment of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the greatest losses and damages to the cultural infrastructure were experienced in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhіa and Sumy regions.

In March 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine created a site to collect evidence of the destruction of cultural heritage as a result of Russian aggression. Also, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine opened a charity account to support culture and media in Ukraine.

In September 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported that it had documented 500 episodes of Russian war crimes against the cultural heritage of Ukraine.

At the end of 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine informed that as a result of Russian aggression in Ukraine, 1,132 objects of cultural infrastructure were damaged, also without taking into account monuments of cultural heritage. At that time, it was reported that Russia had completely destroyed 403 objects.

As a result of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, at least 494 religious buildings, spiritual educational institutions and shrines were completely destroyed, damaged or looted by the Russian military.

The Institute of Religious Freedom presented such updated data on the impact of the war on Ukrainian religious communities on January 31 and February 1 during the International Religious Freedom Summit held in Washington, USA.

According to the Institute of Religious Freedom, since the presentation at last year’s Summit, in July 2022, the number of objects of the religious infrastructure of Ukraine, damaged as a result of Russian aggression, has more than doubled.

The largest number of churches, mosques and synagogues were destroyed in Donetsk region (at least 120) and Luhansk region (more than 70). There was also a huge scale of destruction in Kyiv region (70), where desperate battles were fought to defend the capital of Ukraine, and in Kharkiv region – more than 50 destroyed religious buildings. Russian air attacks, including those using Iranian drones, affected almost all regions of Ukraine and continue to this day.

Also, the Institute of Religious Freedom documented many facts of the seizure of religious buildings in Ukraine and their subsequent use as Russian military bases or to cover firing positions of Russian troops. This tactic of the Russian military provokes an increase in the scale of destruction of religious objects in Ukraine.

By denomination, the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate) suffered the most from Russian aggression – at least 143.

The large-scale destruction of the prayer houses of evangelical churches – in total at least 170, of which the churches of the evangelical faith Christians were the most affected – 75, the prayer houses of the evangelical Christian-Baptists – 49, as well as the buildings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church – 24.

The updated the Institute of Religious Freedom data now includes information on the destruction of Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s Witnesses – a total of 94 religious buildings, among which 7 were completely destroyed, 17 were severely damaged, and 70 were slightly damaged.

The Institute for Religious Freedom also documented targeted attacks by the Russian military and special services on religious figures and believers, primarily in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

In his speech at the Summit, the Institute of Religious Freedom Executive Director Maksym Vasin stated that believers and clergy often became targets for the Russian occupation authorities because of the Ukrainian language, belonging to a denomination other than the Orthodoxy of the Moscow Patriarchate, or for any other manifestation of Ukrainian identity.

“As a whole, Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine may indicate the presence of a special genocidal intent aimed at the destruction of the Ukrainian people, which is a separate crime under international humanitarian law,” said Maksym Vasin, Executive Director of the Institute of Religious Freedom.

During the Russian occupation, believers of the Evangelical Churches (Pentecostals, Baptists, Adventists, Charismatics, etc.) especially suffered. The Russian military has repeatedly threatened the total physical destruction of all evangelical believers, calling them American spies, sectarians and enemies of the Russian Orthodox people.

Valentyn Sinii, the rector of the Taurian Christian Institute, which was completely destroyed by the Russian military, testified at the Summit in Washington.

“One Russian officer told an employee of our institute that evangelical believers like you should be completely destroyed, because you are sectarians and American spies. But it will be too easy for you to simply shoot them. You should be buried alive,” said the Rector of the Taurian Christian Institute Valentin Sinii.

During the Summit, a separate panel discussion dedicated to Ukraine was held, in which the first deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches Ihor Bandura, the first deputy of the Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Church of Evangelical Christians Anatoliy Kozachok, the president of the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, Rabbi Yakiv Dov Blaich, bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine Oleksandr Yazlovetskyi, archpriest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Fr. Andriy Dudchenko and Oleksandr Zayets, chairman of the board of the Institute of Religious Freedom.

During the atrocities in the Kyiv region, the occupiers killed a large number of civilians.

The head of the police of the Kyiv region, Andrii Nebytov, said that 1,369 bodies of civilians killed by the occupiers have already been found in the region, and 197 bodies of citizens remain unidentified. 300 people are currently considered missing.

Law enforcement officers of the Kyiv region have opened more than 10,000 criminal proceedings based on the fact of crimes committed by the Russian military on the territory of the region. Most of the proceedings have been handed over to investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine.

The National Police handed over 50 suspicions to the Russian military for committing atrocities on the territory of the region.

US Permanent Representative to the OSCE Michael Carpenter said that Muscovy forcibly removed more than 14,000 children from Ukraine, Carpenter said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

The American diplomat said that “the authorities of the Russian Federation seek to eliminate all manifestations of Ukrainian national identity and turn all Ukrainians into loyal subjects of the Russian empire.”

He also noted that the United States will continue to work with international partners and Ukraine to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes in Ukrainian territories.

On the morning of February 24, 2022, rashist Muscovy, with the help of its ally, authoritarian Belarus, launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. Recall that several military facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro were hit by rocket attacks, and Russian troops crossed the border near Kharkiv, Chernigov, Kherson and Kyiv.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine, all special and security services of the state are on alert. Katsaps began intensive shelling of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army is rebuffing the rashists. The National Security and Defense Council is working in emergency mode. Martial law has been introduced. Ukraine officially sent a lawsuit against Muscovy to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

During the war, rashists shell and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure facilities, carry out massive shelling of residential areas of Ukrainian cities and villages using artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, drones and ballistic missiles. Rashists also organize the genocide of Ukrainians in the captured settlements and massively rape women and children.

As you know, the Muscovite politician Grigory Yavlinsky claims that in the Russian Federation “…the national idea… has become a confrontation with the West, a new world order, the messianic role of Russia.” The main adherent of this ideology was the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Under his presidency, Yavlinsky notes, the course of the Russian Federation opposed it to the world of the 21st century, led the Russian Federation to the same worldview that at one time gave rise to the First and Second World Wars. This ideology, implemented in the state practice of the Russian Federation, is called rashism. It is its manifestation that we see in the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. This is the realization, in particular, of the rashist idea declared by V. Putin: “The borders of Russia do not end anywhere!”