Cultural disinheritance. The damage to Odesa’s Fine Arts Museum is just the latest example of the cultural devastation being wrought by the war in Ukraine

Remnants of shelling outside the Sviatohirsk Lavra of the Holy Dormition in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Photo: EPA-EFE/YEVGEN HONCHARENKO

The Fine Arts Museum in the proudly multiethnic Ukrainian port city of Odesa was damaged in the early hours of Monday when a Russian missile landed right outside the museum’s main building, the elegant 19th century Potocky Palace, leaving a large crater in the road.

While the building sustained superficial damage such as smashed windows and broken plaster, Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper was able to assure the public that all the museum’s artefacts had long been removed and put into storage.

The profound damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage caused by the Russian invasion is inevitably overshadowed by the horrendous death toll, civilian casualties and attacks on vital infrastructure, but that doesn’t lessen the long-term impact of the destruction of buildings such as the Sviatohirsk Lavra of the Holy Dormition.

According to UNESCO, at least 295 Ukrainian cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed since the war started, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture puts that number at a far less conservative 763.

Russian troops have been regularly attacking not only military targets, but also civilian ones such as museums, monuments, and churches. Drawing up an authoritative list of Ukraine’s most culturally significant architectural losses is hard, says Zaporizhia-based historian Pavlo Kravchuk, pointing out that such evaluations are inevitably subjective.

For now it’s also impossible to calculate how much the destruction has cost Ukraine financially, Kravchuk says, as evaluating the damage can only be done by teams of professionals on the ground, and at least half of all the affected historic sites in Ukraine remain inaccessible due to continued fighting.

The greatest loss to consider though is the intangible cultural value of the damaged buildings, Kravchuk says, noting that no amount of money can bring them back. “Behind every object are not just building materials, but memories as well — memories belonging to people who lived in these buildings or nearby, and whose lives were destroyed.”

In the absence of standardised criteria for ranking the importance of historic buildings in Ukraine, the following are some of the greatest losses to the country’s architectural heritage since the war began.

Sviatohirsk Lavra of the Holy Dormition

Svyatohirsk, Donetsk region

One of the 124 religious sites UNESCO says has been damaged in Ukraine since the war began, this onion-domed monastery overlooking the Siverskyi Donets river dates from the early 15th century. Used as a cinema and a sanatorium under Soviet rule, after 1991 the monastery became Ukraine’s third lavra, the most important type of monastery. Between March and May last year the monastery was repeatedly shelled by the Russian army, although some 100 resident monks refused to leave.

Mariupol Drama Theatre

Mariupol, Donetsk region

The Russian missile attack on the Mariupol Drama Theatre on 16 March 2022 is one of the most infamous and deadly of the war to date. The building was bombed while as many as 1,500 civilians were taking shelter inside, as witnessed by a now notorious aerial photograph that shows the word “children” clearly painted in giant letters outside. A final death toll has never been established, but it’s estimated that as many as 600 people died in the attack, which Amnesty International labelled “a clear war crime”.

Kherson Airport

Chornobaivka, Kherson region

Since opening in 1978, the Chernihiv Youth Library has served as a museum, lending library, event space, and gathering place for young people. In 2019, it had some 9,000 registered users. In March 2022, it was hit by three 500-kilogram bombs dropped by the Russian Air Force. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, library employees and volunteers alike risked their lives rushing to the smouldering ruin to salvage whatever they could of the library’s book collection.

Church of the Ascension

Lukianivka, Kyiv region

This 18th-century building had since 1972 housed a museum dedicated to the Ukrainian poet and philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda. In May 2022, artillery fire severely damaged the building, causing a fire that burned for nine hours, engulfing the entire museum. The attack seemed to have been directed intentionally at the museum, which was located in a tiny village devoid of other obvious military targets. One museum employee was seriously injured, though the museum’s most valuable items had been removed from the museum before the war.

Pavlov Manor

Kharkiv

First constructed in 1832, this manor house was once home to a Kharkiv official and his family. In the early 20th century, it became a luxury hotel called Epshtein. Following the Russian revolution in 1917, the building was turned into a military recruitment office. The manor, which was one of the few 19th century buildings left in Kharkiv, was shelled in July 2022. The attack destroyed a third of the building, but the entire remaining structure subsequently had to be demolished due to safety concerns.