“Cultural heritage is by nature politically sensitive, highly complex with a high degree of symbolic significance, emotionally charged and with a risk of political manipulation concerning its history, ownership and use,” we read in a “Concept on Cultural heritage in conflicts and crises” published by the European Union in 2021. 

As of mid-February 2024, UNESCO has verified damage to 342 sites since 24 February 2022 – 127 religious sites, 150 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 31 museums, 19 monuments, 14 libraries, and 1 archive. These numbers, which include only immovable cultural property, are getting higher each month.

Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi holds a PhD in cultural heritage. She has been head of the UNESCO Desk in Ukraine since October 2022. She has over 22 years of professional experience with the United Nations, mainly working in fragile states and emergency contexts.

Podcast co-host and Head of the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków, Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska spoke to Chiara during a meeting of the European Commission-led expert sub-group on the safeguarding of cultural heritage in Ukraine. The meeting was held in January 2024 in Brussels to develop a set of recommendations for the Government of Ukraine and for the Commission itself in the field of protection and reconstruction of tangible and intangible heritage following hostilities.

This podcast was produced in the frame of and as an outcome of the European Heritage Hub pilot project co-funded by the European Union.