'Russia has conducted direct assault on Ukraine's culture': Ukrainian ambassador

Ukrainian ambassador Oleksandr Polishchuk responded to his Russian counterpart’s letter (‘Ukraine has repressed Russian-speaking people’, July 10). The Russian ambassador’s letter was in response to one story in TOI ’s eight-part series on the price of war and fight for peace. Excerpts:
Echoing the Kremlin's playbook, the Russian ambassador spreads sheer misinformation. Casting the aggressor as the victim is a classic product of Russia's propaganda machine. And that is exactly why we counter these statements with facts.

In 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and with it, a direct assault on Ukrainian culture. As of June 2025, Ukraine's ministry of culture and information policy reports that more than 1,400 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Russian forces. Unesco has so far verified 501 of these sites, including museums, churches, libraries and monuments.


At its 46th session, held in New Delhi in July 2024, the Unesco World Heritage Committee officially recognised Russia's invasion as a direct threat to Ukraine's cultural heritage. The committee called on Russia to refrain from any actions that may damage Ukrainian World Heritage sites - including Saint Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and the Historic Centre of Lviv, all now listed as World Heritage in Danger.

Additionally, museums have been looted. Schools and churches bombed. Children deported and subjected to forced indoctrination to erase their Ukrainian identity.

Since Russia's illegal occupation of Crimea in 2014, indigenous Crimean Tatars have been targeted with over 110 cultural artifacts being looted and historic landmarks damaged.

The Russian Orthodox Church has become a weapon of this cultural war. It sends clergy to occupied Ukrainian territories to bless aggression, justify violence, and spread propaganda under the guise of faith.

But repression does not erase Ukrainian identity. It only strengthens our resolve to defend it.