As the people’s deputies reported on July 28, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appealed to UNESCO to immediately terminate Russia’s membership in this organization and its bodies.
As it follows from the voted draft 9535, the actions of the terrorist state in shelling the historical centers of Lviv and Odessa clearly confirm the planned actions of Russia aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity by destroying cultural heritage sites.
The appeal emphasizes that particular concern is caused by the circumstances that the attacks were carried out on the cities that are included in the World Heritage List, and the objects that were attacked are located in the buffer zone – the territory necessary for the proper protection of the object.
As the Ukrainian parliament points out, as a result of Russian aggression, the cultural history of Ukraine is in danger, and the cultural heritage, including objects included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is under threat of destruction.
In the appeal, the Verkhovna Rada recalls that after the start of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, the occupying “authorities” damaged such Ukrainian cultural heritage sites as the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its choir and the Bakhchisaray Palace of the Crimean Khans.
The Ukrainian Parliament recalled that Russia, as part of its aggression, among other things, violates its international obligations under the UN Charter, the UNESCO Charter, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954, the 1970 Convention on the Prohibition and Prevention of the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and other international instruments.
