UNESCO added 19 Ukrainian sites to the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection: list

On December 4, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict supported Ukraine's initiative and decided to include 19 more Ukrainian cultural heritage sites in the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection. This was reported by Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy - Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetyana Berezhna, informs UNN.

Details

According to her, thus, the total number of Ukrainian objects in the List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection increased to 46.

This makes Ukraine one of the countries with the largest list of cultural heritage under the highest international legal protection in the field of humanitarian law. We will continue to work on expanding the list of objects under enhanced protection and on strengthening international legal mechanisms in the field of cultural property protection.

List of Ukrainian objects that were included in the List in 2025:

• Akkerman Fortress, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa region; 

• Assumption Cathedral, Kharkiv; 

• Borys and Hlib Cathedral, Chernihiv;  

• Taras Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater, Kharkiv; 

• Kirche Building (St. Paul's Church), Odesa; 

• L.E. Koenig Estate: Palace (Main House), Trostianets, Sumy region; 

• Movchansky Monastery, Putyvl, Sumy region; 

• Pokrovska Church, Kharkiv; 

• Primorsky Stairs, Odesa; 

• Resurrection Church, Sumy; 

• Kyrylivska Church, Kyiv; 

• Transfiguration Cathedral, Sumy; 

• Trinity Cathedral, Sumy;

• Ancient settlement of the chronicle city of Iskorosten, Korosten, Zhytomyr region; 

• Archaeological complex "Baid Island", Zaporizhzhia; 

• Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Odesa; 

• Odesa National Art Museum, Odesa; 

• Odesa National Scientific Library, Odesa; 

• Prykarpattia Art Museum, Ivano-Frankivsk.

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It is indicated that enhanced protection is a mechanism of international protection of cultural heritage, provided for by the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention. To obtain this status, objects must meet three key criteria:

• they are cultural heritage of immense importance to humanity;
• they are protected by the adoption at the national level of appropriate legal and administrative measures that recognize their exceptional cultural and historical value and ensure protection at the highest level;
• they are not used for military purposes or to shield military objects, and the Party exercising control over the cultural property has made a declaration confirming that they will not be used in such a way.

"In the context of full-scale Russian aggression, Ukraine has become the first state in the world to extensively apply the mechanism of enhanced protection during wartime, creating a new precedent in international practice," the statement says.

The row added that cultural property included in the International List under enhanced protection enjoys the highest level of protection under the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention. Violation of their "immunity" is considered a gross violation of the Second Protocol, a serious international crime, and entails double responsibility - for both states and individuals.

Recall

Russia was not elected to the Intergovernmental Council of the UNESCO "Information for All" Program, the Intergovernmental Council of the International Program for the Development of Communication, and the International Coordinating Council of the UNESCO "Man and the Biosphere" Program.

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