What we know about UNESCO heritage site damaged by Russian strike on central Lviv

The centre of Lviv came under attack from Russian drones on the afternoon of 24 March. Early reports indicate that cultural heritage sites have been damaged, including landmarks in the city's UNESCO-listed historic area.

Source: Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of Lviv Oblast Military Administration

Details: As of 17:48, reports have confirmed damage to the Bernardine Monastery, an architectural ensemble of national significance that is also included in the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection.

The monastery's outer buildings were engulfed by fire. Experts are currently determining the extent of the damage.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has called on UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany to respond to the attack.

Quote from Sybiha: "Russia brutally struck the central part of Lviv, a city of exceptional cultural value and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Damage was caused to the UNESCO World Heritage. I urge UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany to immediately respond to this crime in the strongest terms."

More details: A residential building near Soborna Square, next to the monastery itself, also sustained damage. Damage was also recorded on Stepan Bandera Street, not far from the Prison on Łącki Street, a national museum commemorating victims of the occupation regimes.

Reports of attacks have also come in from the cities of Vinnytsia, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk.

Information is being gathered on casualties and the full extent of the damage.

The Bernardine Monastery

Built in the 17th century as part of the city's defensive system, the Bernardine Monastery is one of Lviv's main historical landmarks. The site combines Renaissance and Baroque architectural features and is an important part of the historic area, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The monastery building now belongs to the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv, one of the largest archives in Central and Eastern Europe and the largest in Ukraine. It holds one of the oldest and richest collections of documents from the 12th century to the first half of the 20th century, covering the history of Ukraine and a large part of Europe.

A historian's comment

Historian Iryna Sklokina stresses that historical and cultural monuments, as well as libraries, archives and museums, must remain untouched during armed conflicts: their protection is guaranteed by the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Responsibility for preserving them, however, lies with both the aggressor and the state on whose territory they are located.

Sklokina said that after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the international community began to discuss whether the destruction of cultural heritage should be recognised as one of the hallmarks of genocidal policy, precisely because of cases of the deliberate and targeted destruction of cultural institutions and collections.

In the case of Ukraine, she said, there are examples of clearly intentional destruction of heritage, particularly the Hryhorii Skovoroda Museum in the village of Skovorodynivka in Kharkiv Oblast and the Roman Shukhevych Museum in Lviv Oblast.

"These are direct ideological gestures, destroying heritage that contradicts Putin's canon of 'correct' history," she emphasised.

Most damage to Ukrainian monuments, however, is caused by the use of imprecise weapons, fighting along the front line or engineering work, particularly the construction of fortifications in the case of archaeological heritage.

Sklokina added that further investigation should establish whether the archive in the Bernardine Monastery was deliberately targeted by Russian forces.

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