Heritage under attack: Ukrainians revive interest in culture

This article was first published by BBC News.

It was late at night on 7 May 2022 when a Russian missile hit a museum that was once home to Ukraine’s 18th-Century poet and philosopher Hryhory Skovoroda.

“The roof was completely blown off, the walls are burnt and only Skovoroda’s statue survived. It’s a miracle that it did,” says Nastya Ishchenko, deputy director of the museum in the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine.

It is one of 432 cultural sites damaged in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the UN’s cultural organisation Unesco.

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