It has been 348 days since the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Such a long period of conflict makes it clear that among the objectives of the Kremlin is the destruction of Ukrainian culture. On 5 February 2023, Russian missiles again proved this observation. The occupiers fired one of the rockets into the building of the Kharkiv national university of urban economy named after Beketov. A powerful explosion injured a university guard.
In addition, the Center of national resistance of Ukraine reported that the occupation authority in the occupied territories "cleanse the culture". The occupiers take away Ukrainian books from schools and libraries. They call them Nazi literature, which must be burned.
Over 11.5 months of the war, more than 1.000 crimes against Ukrainian culture were recorded. 563 club organizations suffered at the hands of the occupiers in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions. Russian soldiers also destroyed 453 libraries (in the Kyiv, Donetsk, and Mykolaiv regions). The invaders also won the war for almost a year with 92 cultural institutions, 63 museums/galleries, 18 theatres, and a philharmonic society, mainly in the eastern and northeastern parts of the country.
Some buildings, books, and paintings cannot be restored. But the authentic culture of the Ukrainian people lies in the Ukrainians themselves.
