24th August marks the 31st anniversary of Ukrainian independence. On this day – in1991 – following a failed coup d’état in Moscow, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic in Kyiv adopted Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence. This decision was approved by more than 90% of Ukrainians, who expressed their convictions in the independence...
Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported that “as of 30th July, 450 separate instances of war crimes against cultural heritage sites have been registered”. Among the bombed and shelled sites were 23 historic buildings of national importance and 108 other valuable structures. The scale of the destruction deliberately perpetrated by the Russian military...
28th July marks the Day of Ukrainian Statehood. The state holiday has been established onthe anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus in 988 – the baptism in the Dnipro River of Volodymyr I the Great and residents of numerous towns initiated the process of Christianisation of the country. The Ukrainian Statehood Day was enacted...
The Ukrainian Institute in Kyiv has launched ‘Postcards from Ukraine’ project. Postcards prepared by graphic designers, however, do not depict picturesque nature and beautiful cities of our Eastern neighbour. The main theme is photos of destroyed historical sites, juxtaposed with their state from just a few months ago. Thus, the creators of the project want...
An eco-museum, comprising century-old huts preserved in the region of Poltava, has been remodelled as a shelter for refugees fleeing the bombarded city of Kharkiv. The adaptation of the huts for the needs of the new residents has involved removing numerous objects decorating the interiors from the walls and cupboards – including exhibits from the...
Artists from Riga have decided to support the reconstruction of the devastated Ivankiv Museum of History and Local Lore (in the Kiev region) by making mosaic paraphrases of the works by Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. The head of the Mosaic Art Studio in Riga, Vadym Vernyk, said he had been a long-time admirer of the...
On 27th June at the Castle Square in Warsaw Ukraine’s Minister of Defence Oleksii Yuriyovych Reznikov opened the exhibition entitled “For Our Freedom and Yours” which showcases Russian military equipment destroyed in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The visitors will be able to see, among others, a T72B tank damaged in the region of the...
On July 1, at the extraordinary meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the “Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking” was added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. Although this might seem a bit unbelievable, the feud for the rights to this treat had...
Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Mr Oleksandr Tkachenko, informed about the declaration signed jointly with ministers of other European countries on the recovery and reconstruction of the cultural heritage destroyed in the war. “The Russian Federation has destroyed or damaged over 400 Ukrainian cultural sites. We have talked with our colleagues about reconstruction...
On 29th June an international conference was held, participated by Ministers of Culture of ten Central and Eastern European states: Poland, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Expressing gratitude to Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy, Mr Oleksandr Tkachenko for his invitation, Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Deputy...