Almost a year ago the powerful explosions waked up Ukrainians around five in the morning on February 24, 2022. Russian troops launched a massive missile attack on all sovereign territory of Ukraine and brutally crossed its border in tanks. Thus how a full-scale
Russian-Ukrainian war started.
Museums, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions responded to the threat in accordance with their capacities and military situation. The cultural sphere of Ukraine promptly self-organized: public and volunteer initiatives appeared, which, with the help
of concerned citizens and local authorities, turned Ukrainian public space into
cultural barricades, protecting monuments and sculptures, facade decorations,
and other artistic and historical objects.
The civilized world launched a
"cultural lend-lease" for Ukraine. Various international funds,
organizations, institutions and governments, through volunteer initiatives and
directly, provided Ukrainian cultural institutions with packing and restoration
materials, protective and emergency equipment, hard and cloud storages,
humanitarian and financial assistance. Experts and officials from different
countries held meetings, trainings, conferences, consultations to make our
culture more resilient to the threats and attacks. Ukrainian museums,
libraries, archives, scientific and art centres, getting such solidarity and
help, began active rescue operations, assessing losses and risks, documenting
crimes against culture.
During 11 months of the war, the
Russians destroyed or damaged 1,189 cultural objects in Ukraine, according to
records from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Tens of
thousands of artefacts were stolen from museum and private collections in the
occupied regions. The looting of Ukrainian historical, cultural and artistic
values, the purposeful destruction of museums, archives, libraries, theatres,
cultural centres, monuments, and religious buildings is an intentionally
planned military and ideological operation of the Kremlin regime.
In the nearest future we expect for
complex processes of stabilization, early recovery and reconstruction of
Ukrainian culture, an international tribunal against Russian military
criminals, restitution of cultural values and promotion of Ukrainian culture worldwide.
As well as - raising awareness of the experience of this war and measures to
strengthen the stability of culture in times of crisis. These perspective
requires even closer coordination and partnership. For this purpose,
International Forum on Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Times of War is
launched.