Ukraine Heritage Response Fund

Supporting immediate action to protect Ukraine's irreplaceable treasures from further damage and preparing post-crisis recovery conservation at cultural heritage sites

Since the invasion of Ukraine, over 150 historical sites have been identified as severely damaged or destroyed according to UNESCO, including the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum and its collection; the Holy Mountains Lavra, a seventeenth-century monastery in Eastern Ukraine; and the historic center of Chernihiv, which is on the Tentative List for World Heritage status.

With an initial seed grant of $500,000 from Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, World Monuments Fund's (WMF) Ukraine Heritage Response Fund will support Ukrainian heritage professionals and provide supplies necessary to protect Ukrainian heritage places. When safe to do so, physical conservation projects will be necessary to stabilize and rehabilitate many important cultural sites across Ukraine. WMF is preparing now for those future needs by building a strong foundation of financial support that can be deployed for physical conservation work at cultural heritage sites.

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Our Initiatives

WMF has launched several new projects as part of the fund to address the immediate, critical needs of heritage professionals in Ukraine and to lay the groundwork for the future rehabilitation and long-term recovery of cultural heritage in the country.

Protection of the Black House

The Black House is a sixteenth-century structure in Lviv’s Market Square. In 2019, the Lviv Historical Museum completed an AFCP-supported project to preserve the Black House, including its main facade, courtyard, lobby, and collection of stone sculptures. The inner courtyard of the Black House was also excavated, and an exhibition of stone architectural and sculptural fragments from Lviv buildings was created. Today, the building façade, festooned with intricate sculpture, is particularly vulnerable to damage from nearby explosions from ballistic missiles.

With support from the U.S. Department of State through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, WMF is working with the Lviv Historical Museum and Friends of the Lviv Historical Museum to build a strong external structure to protect the decorative façade while reflecting the history and aesthetic of the Market Square.

Fire Extinguishers to Protect Ukraine’s Wooden Churches

Ukraine is home to more than 2,500 wooden churches, or tserkvas, the largest number in the world. Eight of Ukraine’s wooden churches are included on the UNESCO World Heritage List of Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine. They are often located in remote rural communities and are particularly vulnerable to fire, especially in extreme conflict situations. 

In response to requests from professionals on the ground, WMF partnered with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) International, the Foundation to Preserve Ukraine’s Sacral Arts (FTPUSA), Heritage Emergency Rescue Initiative (HERI), the NGO Tustan, and the Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage to deliver 440 water-mist fire extinguishers that will serve to protect up to 200 tserkvas throughout Ukraine. The extinguishers were sourced from the fire safety provider Safelincs in the UK, who in providing the equipment below cost price, donating accessories and covering transport costs to Poland, allowed the delivery of a significantly larger number of extinguishers than would otherwise have been possible. The Polish Committee for Ukrainian Museums, through the Warsaw Rising Museum and the Instytut Pawła Włodkowica, supported transport logistics, provided warehousing in Poland, and organized onward transport by truck to Ukraine. The extinguishers will be distributed by Ukrainian partners, the Center to Rescue Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage, the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI), and ICOMOS Ukraine.

Provision of Supplies to Monitor Damage to St. Sophia of Kyiv

The St. Sophia of Kyiv Cathedral dates back to the eleventh century and is part of the St. Sophia of Kyiv National Sanctuary Complex. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the cathedral and its surroundings are susceptible to severe damage.

As a result, WMF has partnered with Cultural Emergency Response (CER), with local support from the Heritage Rescue Emergency Initiative (HERI) and personnel from the St. Sophia of Kyiv National Conservation Area, to deliver monitoring equipment to the St. Sophia of Kyiv National Sanctuary Complex.

Installation of a Temporary Cover for the Holy Trinity Church in Zhovkva

The Holy Trinity Church in Zhovkva dates back to 1720 and was under restoration when the war in Ukraine started in February 2022. As a result, work abruptly halted. To prevent further damage to the church, the upper parts of the building were temporarily covered with plastic sheeting.

In order to provide additional protection for the church over an extended period of time, WMF committed to funding the installation of a temporary waterproof membrane to protect the interior spaces of the church. It will be installed in locations where the roof was removed prior to the start of the conflict to protect Holy Trinity from inclement weather. This project was undertaken in partnership with the charitable foundation International Cooperation for Zhovkva and the Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery.

On June 21, 2013, during the 37th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cambodia, the Holy Trinity Church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage UNESCO World Heritage List of Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine.

Digitization of the the State Archive of Kyiv Oblast

WMF has partnered with Archival Information Systems and the State Archive of Kyiv Oblast (SAKO) to preserve the latter's efforts to digitize parts of its collections in order to make documents available for researchers and safeguard the contents of vulnerable objects from potential damage during the war. Efforts have focused on the State Register of Civil Status Acts (which has digitized 232 files so far) and the Maps and Drawings of Kyiv Province collection (which has digitized 361 files).

Damage Assessment of Cultural Heritage in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy Oblasts

Available registers of cultural sites affected by the war list up to 600 entries. However, none of these registers is complete. In order to better assess the situation on the ground in the wake of the invasion, WMF has partnered with HERI and the NGO Tustan to conduct a cultural heritage damage assessment in three particularly hard-hit regions of Ukraine. Analysis of the findings will allow for the development of strategies for emergency stabilization and mid-term preservation and lay the foundations for post-conflict recovery.

Winterization Efforts

In November 2022, WMF and CER, with backing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, partnered to support the winterization of several historic sites in the Ukrainian oblasts of Kyiv, Sumy, and Chernihiv. Having been damaged by Russian artillery during the war, these buildings are now at further risk from ice and snow unless preventative measures are taken to shield the exposed interiors from precipitation and prevent the structures from further degradation and potential collapse. The following sites are being supported for emergency winterization:

  • The Okhtyrka Local History Museum

    Over a century old, this regional museum in northeastern Ukraine suffered a major blow when Russian bombs hit Okhtyrka’s historic center in March of 2022. The blast severely damaged the roof, blew out the building’s windows, and affected the exhibits inside. To safeguard the museum from further damage due to winter weather, WMF and CER have signed a memorandum of understanding with the museum and are partnering with Initiatives for Development, a local NGO, to implement the project to protect this important heritage site.
     

  • The Chernihiv Regional LIbrary of Youth (formerly the Museum of Antiquities)

    Housed in a striking Gothic Revival Building, Chernihiv’s Museum of Antiquities possessed a rich collection of artifacts thanks to the work of founder Vasyl Tarnovsky. Prior to the Russian Revolution, it was the only museum devoted to Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Though the collection was moved when the building was converted into a regional library in 1978, the site retained both its splendid ornamentation and its reputation for historic richness.

    In March of 2022, Russian shelling resulted in the collapse of part of the building’s roof and walls. Experts have already conducted comprehensive onsite surveys in preparation for the installation of a fence, the removal of debris, and the filling in of the crater left by the bombing. WMF and CER are supporting the winterization of the site, including shielding the partly ruined building from further damage and medium-term stabilization, in partnership with the Chernihiv Regionel Military Administration and the LLCs K.D.K. BUD and Project Innovations.
     

  • The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts

    Originally comprising the private collection of philanthropists Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko, this Kyiv museum is one of Ukraine’s most important artistic institutions, featuring works from across the globe. The nineteenth-century buildings in which the collection is housed are also of great architectural value.

    The Khanenko Museum was among a number of important cultural institutions that suffered damage during a missile attack on the Ukrainian capital in October of 2022.  WMF and CER will support emergency actions to protect the museum, including its damaged metal roof tiles and roof lanterns, among other activities, in collaboration with the LLCs K.D.K. BUD and Project Innovations.

Identifying and Addressing Critical Needs

Following meetings with both regional and global partners, including UNESCO, ICOMOS, International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH), the Smithsonian Institution, and Blue Shield International, among others, WMF has identified the following critical needs:

  • Short-term: Equipment and Supplies. The most immediate needs for heritage professionals in Ukraine are supplies needed to protect sites from collateral damage.
  • Medium-term: Documentation and Assessment of Damage. Once conflict subsides, heritage site managers will be faced with the challenge of taking stock of the damage and assessing the most urgent restoration needs. WMF has created a Ukraine Taskforce within the organization, dedicated to monitoring the situation and coordinating with Ukrainian professionals and various international stakeholders. In support of the taskforce's work, WMF also recruited a Ukraine Heritage Crisis Specialist, Kateryna Goncharova, to help lead efforts to respond to the impact of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine on the country’s cultural heritage sector.
  • Long-term: Restoration and Rehabilitation Projects. While the full extent of damage remains to be seen, we are already aware of dozens of heritage sites that have suffered varying degrees of destruction. We aim to develop projects that support recovery once the conflict subsides.

WMF also continues to participate in UNESCO and other international emergency response coordination meetings mobilizing international partners to ensure the complementarity of all actions taken to address short-, medium-, and long-term needs at heritage sites around Ukraine.

A Commitment to Response

WMF has a longstanding history of serving as heritage first-responders with a well-established crisis response infrastructure to address emergency situations for cultural heritage sites around the globe.
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The Ukraine Heritage Response Fund was created with leadership support from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation. World Monuments Fund would also like to thank the other generous donors who have supported the Fund, including Cultural Emergency Response (CER) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands; the Richard Lounsbery Foundation; Tianaderrah Foundation / Nellie and Robert Gipson; the Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation; the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation; the Flora Family Foundation; Christie's, and other supporters.

 

For any questions relating to the Ukraine Heritage Response Fund or the information included on this page, please contact us here.