War in Ukraine inflicted $3.5 bln in damage to cultural sites: UN

KIEV

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused around $3.5 billion worth of damage to the country's heritage and cultural sites, a United Nations agency reported on Feb. 13.

Culture, tourism, and entertainment have lost a combined $19 billion in revenues since the Russian invasion in February 2022, the UN's educational, scientific and cultural organisation UNESCO said.

Last year, the Paris-based organisation estimated the damage at nearly $2.6 billion.

According to UNESCO, which used satellite images to assess the damage, some 5,000 sites have been destroyed, including more than 340 sites such as museums, monuments, libraries and religious venues.

Two UNESCO World Heritage sites, the medieval center of the western city of Lviv and Odesa in the south, were among those hit hard by Russian strikes.

Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, the organisation's representative in Ukraine, singled out Odesa's Transfiguration Cathedral, a "symbol for the whole community," which was badly damaged by a Russian strike in July 2023.

Founded in 1794 and destroyed by the Soviets in 1936, the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa was rebuilt in the 2000s with donations.

Seven cultural sites and one natural site in Ukraine are on UNESCO's World Heritage List including the historic centre of Odesa.

Sixteen other sites are on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage sites list, awaiting a formal application by the government in Kiev to be given World Heritage status.