Ukrainian Culture Under Attack: Erasure of Ukrainian Culture in Russia's War Against Ukraine

This report contains damning, undeniable evidence of a concerted campaign of erasure of Ukrainian culture by Russia. In the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a missile struck the Ivankiv local history museum, setting it on fire. It was the only building in the village to be struck. The Mariupol Drama Theatre was sheltering hundreds of civilians, including children, when Russian aircraft dropped two bombs on it in March 2022. Amid that rubble and death is a stark casualty: Ukrainian culture, identity, and heritage. PEN America and PEN Ukraine’s new report, Ukrainian Culture Under Attack: Erasure of Ukrainian Culture in Russia's War Against Ukraine gathered evidence of intentional and indiscriminate attacks on Ukraine’s cultural infrastructure, in cities and rural areas. The report is damning, undeniable evidence of a concerted campaign of erasure. Hundreds of cultural buildings, monuments, and places of worship have been destroyed. Museums looted. Language suppressed. Books destroyed. Poets, writers, journalists, and translators detained, tortured, and killed. Preserved cultural heritage sites uprooted. The report makes clear that culture is not collateral damage in the war against Ukraine: it’s a target, a central pillar of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the war. Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukrainian culture and language simply don’t exist. By targeting art museums, music halls, libraries, theaters, and historical sites, he attempts to make it so.