Ukraine appeals to UNESCO to protect Tauric Chersonese in Crimea

Ukraine has appealed to UNESCO to protect Tauric Chersonese, which Russia continues to destroy in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The occupiers are carrying out illegal construction work on the site under the pretext of creating a "historical and archaeological park". This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Culture, UNN reports. 

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has initiated consultations with the Secretariat of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on the protection of the World Heritage Site in occupied Sevastopol - "Chersonese of Tavria and its choirs"

As noted,  the ICIP appealed to the UNESCO World Heritage Center with a request to provide full official information that the organization currently has on the state of preservation of Chersonese, as well as on illegal work there. 

They also asked for clarification of the information that appeared in open sources about Russia's sending documents on the work on the UNESCO site in Crimea. 

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According to the Institute of Archeology and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the activities on the territory of the world heritage site "Ancient City of Chersonesos Tavriya and its Chora", carried out by the occupation regime since 2014, have so far led to the destruction of the city of Chersonesos on an area of 80,215 square meters. 

We are talking about damage to an area of up to 4,000 square meters of the monument by misuse, and the Russians damaged the rest of the monument by negative impact from "improvement" measures.

Among the illegal actions of the occupiers on the territory of Chersonese:

• illegal archaeological excavations by employees of the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage;
• the so-called “reconstruction” and construction on the territory of Chersonese;
• active use of Chersonese for propaganda purposes, including attempts to present the site as part of Russia's cultural heritage, which contradicts the internationally recognized borders and status of Crimea.

"According to Ukrainian law, all items found in the protected (buffer) zone of museums in nature reserves must be transferred to the museum's funds for storage. Archaeological excavations, the construction of an "archaeological park" in Chersonese, and the transfer of exhibits to exhibitions and things for restoration to Russia are illegal," the Ministry of Culture said. 

Recall

On July 25, for the first time, the World Heritage Committee used the phrase "full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation" in its official decisions in the context of the causes of threats to cultural heritage sites in Ukraine.