UNESCO has verified nearly 30 dozen damaged cultural sites across Ukraine in a new survey meant to shed light on the extent to which the cost of war has left an impact on the nation’s spiritual landscape and intellectual heritage over the past two full years. 

Kharkiv and Donetsk led the list of regions with the most damaged sites, totaling 56 and 87, respectively. The list counts a total of 341 sites, another 39 of which are in the Kyiv capital region. UNESCO officials compiled their tally from a number of on-the-ground sources. This is apparently meant to be a preliminary damage assessment that will hereafter be updated on a regular basis once the process for reporting is established. 

The new survey counted 126 religious sites, 150 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 31 museums, 19 monuments, 14 libraries, and one archive. Among the most significant damaged sites are the National Palace of Arts in Kyiv and many buildings in the endangered historic city center of Odesa. The damage amounts to roughly $3.5 billion in repairs, with another $9 billion in aid needed to be spread over the course of a decade for the country’s cultural tourism industries to recover after the conflict ends.

UNESCO says it is also working on an “independent, coordinated assessment of data” that will incorporate satellite images and other information to make further assessments in line with the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property.

This is the second update to the UN cultural body’s first accounting from June of 2022.