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As of October 25, 1,612 cultural heritage monuments and 2,427 cultural infrastructure facilities were damaged or destroyed as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the destruction was recorded in 18 regions of the country, while it is difficult to calculate the exact damage in the territories seized by Russia.

Among the affected monuments of cultural heritage 149 objects have the status of national importance, 1311 — local, and 152 are newly identified. The greatest damage was recorded in Kharkiv (342 monuments), Kherson (294), Odessa (182), Donetsk (173), as well as in Kyiv region and the city of Kyiv (156).

Significant damage was also inflicted on the cultural infrastructure: 493 out of 2427 affected objects were completely destroyed. In particular, 1180 club institutions, 852 libraries, 186 art education institutions, 134 museums and galleries, 50 theaters and philharmonics, as well as reserves, parks and other objects were affected. Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Kyiv regions suffered the greatest losses in this sector.

The agency notes that the destruction affected 327 territorial communities. However, the collection of accurate data in a large part of Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Kherson regions is impossible due to the fighting, so the real figures of losses may be much higher.

We shall remind you that Ruslan Koshulinskyy, the former vice speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and a functionary of the Svoboda party, said recently that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were shooting at Ukrainian Orthodox churches on the front line. Koshulynskyy claims that the servicemen do so because they do not consider the UOC religious buildings as religious buildings, as they «belong to the Moscow Patriarchate».