How UNESCO supports Ukraine in preserving and protecting culture heritage during the war?

How UNESCO helps Ukraine during the war in preserving and protecting culture heritage, tells Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi — the Head of UNESCO Desk in Ukraine since October 2022.

She spoke about it during the conversation with Andriy Kulykov for English-language podcast Ukraine Calling on Hromadske radio:

«…Heritage and culture, cultural heritage and culture more in general. And this is an area where from February last year, we have been very closely monitoring, from one side, the damage occurring to cultural properties in the country. And at the same time, looking at all the protection measures, both in a preventive manner to enable to reduce the risk, mitigate the impact of possible missile strikes on specific, for instance, open air monuments.

We did this for instance in Odesa to protect open air monuments, but also to intervene immediately in the urgent repair for institutions, museums, and all this part».

Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi says, that this tangible heritage component has always been flanked with the support for capacity investment to support professionals:

«And we do know that the outflow of professionals and brain drain, today, is a key issue. We have worked through continuing to support professionals, and I can give you some examples, in professionalization in this, in how to address, how to cope with the crisis, how to start looking at, for instance, a preparedness plan, security plan in museum, how to work in emergency inventory, how to secure collections, how to reply to the risk of looting, of illicit trafficking according to the UNESCO Cultural Convention. But also supporting livelihoods of artists, culture bearers, because this is the vital part of the identity, the cultural identity of a country.

We’re supporting, for instance, cultural projects and looking at supporting projects through grant schemes, reaching associations in different regions of the country. We are now launching a second stage of this appeal.

We could already support some projects in Kherson, Dnipro, Kyiv, Lviv. We are building a cultural hub for coworking, reinforcing capacity. And all of this is done at different levels. It’s done in close work with the line ministries, not only Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, and with all the technical part».