Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately attacking its cultural heritage, including publishers and religious sites, in an effort to destroy the nation's identity. The strikes come just ahead of Ukraine's new school year, with millions of books reportedly destroyed.
Ukraine's Minister of Culture, Tetyana Berezhna, stated that the cultural and military impacts of Russia's war are inseparable. "This is an existential war, so Russia wants to destroy us as a nation, to erase us as a nation, like Ukrainians do not exist and have never existed," Berezhna said. She believes Russia targets cultural heritage and symbols of Ukrainian presence because it seeks to ruin what it cannot appropriate. According to Berezhna, Russia has attacked over 1,900 pieces of Ukrainian heritage and more than 2,000 cultural institutions.
Strikes on printing presses have led to the destruction of an estimated 12 million books. Viktoria Haidai, who works at the bombed Kyiv printing press Viktoria, emphasized the importance of preserving the publishing industry. "The word is everything. It is our development, our culture, and our historical heritage that is passed down from generation to generation," she said.
Digitization efforts are underway to protect Ukrainian art and literature, ensuring that children can continue to learn despite the attacks on physical materials. However, there are warnings that Ukraine's entire publishing sector is under threat and requires international support to remain viable.
This strategy of targeting cultural identity echoes sentiments expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a 2021 essay titled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." In the essay, Putin asserted that Ukrainians and Russians are one people and questioned the legitimacy of an independent Ukrainian state and culture.
The Russian embassy to the UK, in a statement to the BBC, attributed damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage to Ukraine's own government. They claimed that monuments have been dismantled, streets renamed, and that cultural sites have been used to conceal military facilities. The Kremlin has consistently denied deliberately targeting civilian sites, despite numerous missile and drone attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure since the full-scale invasion began.