There has been considerable damage to culture due to Russian aggression: 1723 cultural heritage sites and 2524 cultural infrastructure objects have been damaged in Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Culture, at the beginning of April 2026, due to Russian aggression, 1723 cultural heritage monuments and 2524 cultural infrastructure facilities were destroyed and damaged. Of the cultural heritage monuments, 159 are of national importance, 1403 are local, and 161 are newly identified. There are 45 cultural heritage sites that have been totally destroyed.
Place and extent of devastation
There is reported damage in 18 regions, with the biggest casualties in Kharkiv (349 facilities), Kherson (302), Odesa (200), Donetsk (195) and the Kyiv region and Kyiv city (173).
Shelling and hostilities have been impacting 2524 cultural infrastructure facilities, with 518 of these being destroyed.
Cultural infrastructure has suffered the most in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Sumy, Kyiv, and Mykolaiv.
The structure of impacted institutions is as follows: clubs -1245; libraries -872; institutions of arts education -191; museums and galleries -139; theatres, cinemas and philharmonic -52; parks and zoos -11; reserves -9; circuses -4; film studio in Kyiv.
There has been destruction in 341 territorial communities in the country, the highest being in Donetsk (46 communities), Sumy (38), Kharkiv (34), Chernihiv (34), Zaporizhzhia (31), Mykolaiv (23), Dnipropetrovsk (23), Kyiv (21), Luhansk (12) regions.
The total area of the Luhansk region, as well as significant parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson regions, is temporarily occupied, and it makes it hard to properly account for objects of culture that have been affected.
The Netherlands is providing the Ukrainian Foundation of Cultural Heritage with 1 million euros to help the culture sector (as per the Ukrainian Foundation of Cultural Heritage).
Such statistics demonstrate the extent to which cultural heritage is being destroyed and why it is necessary to enhance the security of cultural heritage in Ukraine.
