148 heritage sites damaged or destroyed in Ukraine in a month — BBC News
Over the past month, damage to or destruction of 148 cultural heritage sites has been recorded in Ukraine, including in Odesa. During massive Russian air attacks in August, six UNESCO-protected sites in the city were affected, including the 19th-century pink house of Alexandru Sturdza. This was reported in a BBC News report on the destruction of cultural heritage during wars.
Ukrainian activist groups have filed complaints with the International Criminal Court against the Russian Federation as the aggressor state over the destruction and looting of cultural property. At the same time, the ICC has not yet brought charges in these cases.
International law and accountability
Bijan Rouhani, senior researcher at the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa project, said that international rules for protecting cultural heritage are strong on paper, but their application is constrained by questions of jurisdiction and political will. According to him, state actors have not yet been tried for this crime.
The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict was adopted in 1954. It provides for the protection of monuments, architectural structures, works of art and books. The Second Protocol to the convention, adopted in 1999, establishes enhanced protection for sites of exceptional cultural value. The Rome Statute of the ICC defines intentional attacks on religious, artistic and educational buildings, as well as historic monuments, as war crimes.
The only successfully prosecuted ICC case involving such attacks remains the prosecution of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi. He was sentenced to nine years in prison for directing attacks during which mausoleums and a mosque were destroyed in Timbuktu, Mali.
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Protection of collections in Ukraine
In 2022, a museum of the 18th-century Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhorii Skovoroda was destroyed by Russian shelling. The building caught fire and a caretaker was injured, while a significant part of the museum collection had been evacuated before the attack.
The ALIPH Foundation, established in Geneva in 2017 to protect and restore cultural heritage, allocated millions of dollars to Ukrainian museums to move valuable exhibits to safe locations. Specially equipped vehicles were used for this purpose, which the foundation calls “ambulances for heritage.”
Blue Shield International reports that Ukrainians are documenting damage to cultural sites even at risk to their lives. Its representative Emma Cunliffe also noted the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to protect heritage despite the numerous needs of wartime.
Heritage losses in other wars
The BBC also cites examples of cultural heritage losses in other conflicts. In Gaza, the Great Omari Mosque was almost completely destroyed as a result of an Israeli strike in 2023; the Israeli military said that Hamas was the target of the strike. In Sudan, hostilities halted work to preserve the Meroe pyramids, while the National Museum in Khartoum was looted in 2023 after it came under the control of the Rapid Support Forces.
In Rouhani’s view, arrest warrants for commanders who authorize strikes, prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction and targeted sanctions against specific individuals could serve as deterrents.
