07/05/2022 12:30

The occupying country continues to commit crimes against Ukraine's cultural heritage

National Literary Memorial Museum of Grigoriy  Skovoroda, located in the village of Skovorodynivka in the Kharkiv region, was hit by a missile on the night of May 7.

As a result of the shelling, the 35-year-old son of the museum's director, who was guarding the premises, was injured.

An enemy rocket hit the roof of the museum, a large fire broke out in an ancient estate, which was built in the XVIII century.  Here is the house of the Kovalevsky landowners, where was living in the last years of his life, died and buried Ukrainian philosopher Hryhoriy Skovoroda, his favorite places (700-year-old oak, well).

On the eve of the war, the manor was restored.  In December this year, the museum was to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great philosopher.

To date, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has documented 300 episodes of war crimes of Russian troops against the cultural heritage of Ukraine.

By destroying our cultural heritage, Russia is trying to erase the national identity of the Ukrainian people.  The aggressor's troops violate Articles 4 and 5 of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.  Such actions of the aggressor in accordance with Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are a war crime.

I call on the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during Russia's Military Invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine.