UNESCO released a statement Sunday condemning Russian strikes on Odesa, Ukraine, which allegedly damaged several World Heritage Sites, including the first Orthodox Christian church built in Odesa, the Transfiguration Cathedral. Ukraine is home to eight locations on the World Heritage List.
UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay stated:
This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 World Heritage Convention.
Russia has denied responsibility for the damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral, with Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying, “Our armed forces never strike social infrastructure facilities, let alone temples, churches and other such structures, so we do not accept such accusations. They are absolute lies.” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed Ukrainian military forces for the damage: “[T]he damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral is also on the conscience of the Kiev regime and incompetent operators of air defense systems, which are deliberately deployed by the Ukrainian army in residential quarters, and the d[e]fense ministry has already confirmed this.” Zakharova went on to claim “the UNESCO secretariat hold a biased position on the situation in Ukraine.”
Tensions between UNESCO and Russia have been ramping up since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022. UNESCO classified Odesa as “a World Heritage in Danger site” in January, raising concerns over potential damage due to the war. Russia attempted to delay the vote on this classification several times. Shortly after the vote, tensions came to a head once again with Russia alleging that UNESCO facilitated the removal of religious relics from Ukraine. EUvsDisinfo, an organization sponsored by the Diplomatic Service of the European Union, disputed the claims, calling them “disinformation.” In 2022, UNESCO released a report alleging that 207 important Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged by the war.
Read more at. https://www.jurist.org/news/2023/07/unesco-condemns-russia-strikes-on-ukraine-world-heritage-sites/
THE STATEMENT
Odesa: UNESCO strongly condemns repeated attacks against cultural heritage, including World Heritage
23 July 2023
Paris, 23 July 2023 – UNESCO is deeply dismayed and condemns in the strongest terms the brazen attack carried out by the Russian forces, which hit several cultural sites in the city center of Odesa, home to the World Heritage property ‘The Historic Centre of Odesa’.
The attack took the lives of at least two people, according to preliminary reports, and damaged a number of significant cultural sites, including the Transfiguration Cathedral, the first and foremost Orthodox church in Odesa founded in 1794. This act of hostility comes only days after other attacks that impacted many cultural heritage sites in areas protected under the World Heritage Convention in Lviv and Odesa.
“This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 World Heritage Convention,” said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s Director-General.
The Director-General of UNESCO visited Odesa on April 4, 2023 to meet with World Heritage site managers and stakeholders from the cultural sector. She took stock of the emergency actions undertaken by UNESCO to protect this exceptional heritage threatened by war.
UNESCO will continue to engage with the World Heritage site managers, local and national authorities to identify urgent needs for assistance.
In the coming days, UNESCO will field a mission to Odesa to conduct a preliminary assessment of damages.
These attacks contradict recent statements by the authorities of Russia concerning the precautions taken to spare World Heritage sites in Ukraine including their buffer zones.
Intentional destruction of cultural sites may amount to a war crime, as acknowledged also by the United Nations Security Council – of which the Russian Federation is a permanent member – in Resolution 2347 (2017).
