Ukraine currently has seven landmarks on the UN cultural body’s list of World Heritage Sites (not including the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site that was bombed on March 1st, which they also condemned). Odessa and Kharkiv are also members of the organization’s Creative Cities Network. UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay called for their immediate protection, adding that their existence constitutes “a testimony of the past but also as a vector of peace for the future.”

The UNESCO statement also called for the “immediate cessation of attacks on civilian facilities.” Russia has been very aggressive in pursuing a highly illegal kind of Total War in which non-military infrastructure such as apartment blocks have come under increasing air and artillery barrages resulting in the death of at least 2,000 non-combatants thus far. 

The organization also said it will now hold a meeting at the request of several member states on March 15th to “examine the impact and consequences of the current situation in Ukraine in all aspects of UNESCO’s mandate.”