Assessment of Cultural Heritage Damage in Ukraine
The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine continues to document the damage to cultural heritage and infrastructure resulting from the ongoing Russian aggression.
As of May 25, 2025, according to local military administrations, a total of 1482 cultural heritage sites have been reported damaged in Ukraine. Among these, 145 are of national significance, 1232 are of local significance, and 105 have been newly identified.
Damage has been reported in 18 regions and Kyiv, including: Kharkiv region - 335, Kherson - 282, Donetsk - 172, Odesa - 159, Kyiv and Kyiv region - 106, Zaporizhzhia - 67, Chernihiv - 65, Lviv - 61, Dnipropetrovsk - 61, Sumy - 56, Mykolaiv - 53, Luhansk - 32, Khmelnytskyi - 11, Poltava - 10, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr - 4 each, Kirovohrad - 3, Cherkasy - 1.
Additionally, 2302 cultural infrastructure objects have suffered losses, with 436 completely destroyed (18.6%).
The greatest damage to cultural infrastructure has occurred in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Sumy regions.
The most numerous group of damaged cultural infrastructure objects consists of club institutions (48.6% of all cultural establishments affected).
In total, the following have been affected:
- club institutions - 1118;
- libraries - 808;
- arts education establishments - 176;
- museums and galleries - 129;
- theaters, cinemas, and philharmonics - 48;
- nature reserves - 8;
- parks, zoos - 10;
- circuses - 4;
- film studio - 1.
The destruction has impacted club institutions, libraries, museums, and theaters across 310 territorial communities (21% of all communities in Ukraine) in regions such as Vinnytsia (3.2%), Dnipropetrovsk (22%), Donetsk (91%), Zhytomyr (18%), Transcarpathia (1.6%), Zaporizhzhia (40.3%), Kirovohrad (4%), Kyiv (28.6%), Luhansk (46.2%), Lviv (5.5%), Mykolaiv (44.2%), Odesa (10%), Poltava (4%), Sumy (68.6%), Kharkiv (59%), Kherson (45%), Khmelnytskyi (18%), Cherkasy (6.1%), Chernihiv (51%) regions, and Kyiv city.
Nearly all of Luhansk region and significant portions of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson regions remain under temporary occupation. This makes it impossible to accurately assess the number of damaged cultural heritage sites affected during the hostilities and occupation.
