The preservation of cultural heritage is a great challenge for every country. Ukraine is no exception. Ukraine is blessed with numerous historical, architectural, cultural and other incredible heritage sites, which, nevertheless, constitute a heavy burden to handle. According to a recent report by UNESCO, Ukraine in general has experienced some improvement in looking after its cultural heritage and in public awareness of the need for cultural heritage preservation. However, UNESCO noted that it was urgent for Ukraine to "fully address the recommendations of the 2010 World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS reactive monitoring mission in order to achieve substantial progress towards removing the threats to the property.”

At the regional and local levels, the state of cultural heritage preservation is much more complex. Let’s consider the Lviv Region, for example, which ranks second, out of 24 regions in Ukraine, in terms of the quantity of heritage sites on its territory. To be precise, the Lviv Region boasts 8,441 cultural sites, including 816 sites of national significance. In addition, there are 3,431 architectural heritage sites, including 794 of national significance.

In 2006, the elected members of the Lviv Regional Council recognized that cultural heritage preservation was in critical condition. In order to prevent further damage to the heritage sites, they approved a preservation initiative for 2007-2012. Still, in 2011, the majority of the Lviv Regional Council (62/116) voted that the state of cultural heritage preservation was disastrous.

In the next newsletter release, we’ll continue to analyze the state of preservation of cultural heritage in Ukraine.