UNESCO: Over 200 cultural sites destroyed in Ukraine since February 24

UNESCO’s Cultural and Emergencies Director Krista Pikkat confirmed the information at a briefing in Geneva, AlJazeera reports.

The United Nations says it is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. UNESCO has joined forces with the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) to monitor the situation.

Based on field reports, UNESCO sends a list of potentially damaged sites to UNOSAT. It then requests satellite images from commercial suppliers, and a small group of experts examines the difference in the before-and-after imagery.

The team compares the images and is able to give a time window in which the damage took place.

"This is a kind of pilot experiment to see how we can usefully compile this information, and possibly in the long term, the ambition would be to widen the scope beyond Ukraine and take the tool to a global level so we can really have a kind of real-time, interactive tool for our experts," said Pikkat.

The UN's culture agency UNESCO said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24. They include 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries.

Our conclusion is it's bad, and it may continue to get even worse," Pikkat told the reporters.

Fortunately, none of the seven world heritage sites listed in Ukraine were damaged.

UNESCO is also working with museums and collections in Ukraine to try to combat the threat of looting — a common problem in war.

• Earlier,  Ukraine asked UNESCO and other international organizations to stop any cooperation with Russian museums.