In a video speech, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy renewed his call for Russia’s UNESCO membership to be revoked. He justifies this with attacks aimed at his country’s historical heritage. About dozens of churches were damaged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of massive destruction of cultural monuments, churches and other religious sites during his war. That’s reason enough to exclude the country from UNESCO, the cultural and educational organization of the United Nations, Zelenskyy said in his video address in Kyiv. 113 churches have already been destroyed or damaged.
At the end of May he had already demanded that Russia be excluded from UNESCO. Since the war began on February 24, Russia has already fired more than 2,500 rockets at Ukraine, Zelenskyy complained. “Our heroes stand their ground and do whatever it takes to inflict maximum casualties on the enemy.”
Referring to the focus of the fighting in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, the head of state said the day will come when Russia will leave the area alone. Only the command of one person is decisive for this, he said, without naming Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Russia is a “terror state” that is destroying historical heritage with its artillery. “UNESCO is no place for barbarians.”
In two video messages, Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of shelling and setting fire to a large wooden church in Svyatohirsk (Swjatogorsk). Pictures showed that the building with the onion domes was ablaze. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the allegations and accused the Ukrainian armed forces of having fired themselves.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which counts the Moscow Patriarchate under its sphere of influence, announced that there was a fire caused by hostilities. Zelenskyy called on the Church to completely break away from Moscow. He said civilians had taken refuge in the monastery complex. “Nevertheless, the Russian army is shelling the monastery like the entire Donbass.”
He also said four people were killed in shelling there on Wednesday. The authorities had already announced at the end of March that the arch monastery of the Dormition had been partially destroyed. It is among the holiest monasteries of Russian Orthodoxy.