Cultural, historical centers of Ukraine have been severely damaged in the Russian invasion on a large scale

A spate of Russian missiles and drones fired into Ukraine over the weekend damaged some of the country’s most important cultural institutions, in what officials denounced as a deliberate attack on Ukraine’s history.

“This is a war against our culture, memory and identity,” said Kyrylo Budanov, a senior aide to Ukraine’s president.

“For centuries, Moscow has been trying to destroy everything that makes us Ukraine.”

Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna said it marked “the worst series of damage” to Kyiv’s cultural institutions since Russia’s war on Ukraine began.

Officials said the National Art Museum of Kyiv and the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, both in central Kyiv, were badly damaged, while several other historic buildings in the city center were also affected.

The National Chornobyl Museum, the Kyiv Opera Theatre, the House of Ukraine, the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium and the Hinaus Gallery were caught in the heavy airstrikes in the capital.

The headquarters of the government of Ukraine – the The Cabinet of Ministers – and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also suffered minor damage as a result of the strikes.

The Ministry of the Interior said that more than 40 percent of the items in the Chornobyl Museum’s collection were “irretrievably lost.”

“With today’s strike, Russia is trying to destroy not only lives but also memory,” the ministry said.

The museum recently reopened after extensive renovations to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster. It is temporarily closed while damage assessment and repair efforts continue.

Rescuers and museum workers worked quickly to save artefacts after the strike and were able to find valuable items in the storage, including a painting by famous Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko and a Ukrainian flag that was installed at the Chornobyl plant after Russian troops withdrew from the site in 2022, the ministry said.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko described the Russian strike on the National Chornobyl Museum as a deliberate attack on history and reality, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The Main Unit of the State Emergency Service in the Kyiv region, near the Chornobyl museum, was also affected by the weekend attack, according to GeoConfirmed, a volunteer-run campaign that uses geolocation data to map the world’s conflict zones.

The attack marked the heaviest bombing of the city since the start of the four-year war, firing an Oreshnik hypersonic missile near the capital.

It was only the third time that Russia has used the Oreshnik missile against Ukraine since the war began with a full-scale Russian offensive in February 2022.

Oreshnik, with a range of several thousand kilometers, struck Bila Tserkva, a town of 200,000 people located 64 kilometers from the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

A shopping mall was burnt to the ground, many residential buildings were destroyed and many schools were damaged, most of them in the center of Kyiv.

In total, the Ukrainian air force said, Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones.

Moscow said it used the Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal and Zircon missiles in retaliation for Kyiv’s strikes on civilian targets in Russia. Ukraine says it is not targeting civilians.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted Ukrainian military command centers, including facilities used by ground forces and military intelligence, as well as air bases and military and industrial facilities.

The Mala Opera House reported “extensive damage” after the airstrikes. In the Instagram post, the cultural and historical building is seen collapsing, with broken windows and broken doors.

“This place is more than a building. This is a monument to our city, its art and its voice,” Mala Opera House said in a post, asking for volunteers to help clean the center in the capital.

IHeavy airstrikes have destroyed buildings in Kyiv, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, according to local authorities.

Kyiv’s The Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature said its library, archives and many departments were destroyed.

“The difficult financial situation of the oldest educational institution in the country has become very complicated,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for “strong and systematic action” from the international community in response to Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is trying to intimidate Ukraine by attacking civilians and destroying residential buildings, museums, schools and critical infrastructure,” Sybiha said on the X website.