Russians have destroyed and damaged more than 1,500 cultural infrastructure objects in Ukraine

"The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy continues to record damage to cultural infrastructure in Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression. Thus, as of May 25, 2023, 1,520 objects of cultural infrastructure were damaged, not including cultural heritage sites. Of them, almost a third (541) were destroyed," the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine reports.

As noted, clubs, libraries, museums, theaters, philharmonics, art education institutions (art schools and colleges) were damaged and destroyed in the territory of 216 territorial communities: (14.7%) in Vinnytsia (3% territorial community), Dnipropetrovsk (16 %), Donetsk (87%), Zhytomyr (12%), Zakarpattia (2%), Zaporizhzhia (31%), Kyiv (29%), Luhansk (42%), Lviv (2%), Mykolaiv (42%) , Odesa (3%), Sumy (45%), Kharkiv (36%), Kherson (35%), Khmelnytskyi (5%), Cherkasy (3%), Chernihiv (14%) regions and Kyiv city.

According to Ministry’s statistics, Russians damaged 571 libraries, 82 museums and galleries, 25 theaters and philharmonics, and 115 art education institutions in Ukraine. At the same time, the department notes that club institutions – 727 objects – suffered the greatest damage among the cultural infrastructure.

The Ministry also notes that currently almost the entire territory of Luhansk and significant parts of the territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions remain under temporary occupation, which makes it impossible to calculate the exact number of cultural infrastructure objects damaged during military operations and occupation.

As reported, the number of cultural infrastructure objects destroyed or damaged as a result of Russian aggression reached 1,300 structures in March 2023.