More than 1,700 monuments and 2,500 cultural sites damaged by war – Culture Ministry
In Ukraine, thousands of cultural heritage sites and infrastructure facilities have been damaged or destroyed as a result of Russia’s full-scale aggression.
Censor.NET reports this with reference to the Ministry of Culture.
Scale of losses
As of early April 2026, in Ukraine:
- 1,723 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed;
- 2,524 cultural infrastructure facilities have been affected;
- 45 monuments have been completely destroyed.
Among the damaged monuments:
- 159 have national significance status;
- 1,403 are of local significance;
- 161 are newly identified sites.
Geography of destruction
Damage has been recorded in 18 regions of Ukraine and in Kyiv.
The hardest hit were:
- Kharkiv Oblast — 349 sites;
- Kherson Oblast— 302;
- Odesa Oblast — 200;
- Donetsk Oblast— 195;
- Kyiv Oblast and Kyiv — 173.
Losses to cultural infrastructure
A total of 2,524 cultural infrastructure facilities have been damaged, 518 of them completely destroyed.
They include:
- 1,245 club institutions;
- 872 libraries;
- 191 arts education institutions;
- 139 museums and galleries;
- 52 theaters, cinemas, and philharmonic halls;
- 9 nature reserves;
- 11 parks and zoos;
- 4 circuses;
- a film studio in Kyiv.
Limits on damage assessment
The Ministry of Culture stresses that the real scale of the destruction may be significantly greater.
Almost the entire territory of the Luhansk region, as well as significant parts of the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson regions, remain temporarily occupied.
This makes it impossible to fully document damaged cultural heritage sites and infrastructure facilities.
