Overnight on March 23–24, Russia launched nearly 1,000 drones and 34 missiles in what the US-based Institute for the Study of War described as the largest series of strikes against Ukraine to date. Several cities in western Ukraine were hit; in Lviv the attacks killed several people and left more than 40 injured.
Lviv’s historic centre, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, sustained damage. Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said a drone struck St. Andrew’s Church, part of a former 17th-century Bernardine monastery, destroying several adjacent buildings and shattering many windows. A stained-glass image of the Madonna with Child reportedly survived the blast.
Next to the church stands the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv, which houses material from the Bernardine Archive established in 1784. Anatolii Khromov, the archives’ director, said the collection contains some of Ukraine’s oldest documents, including three 12th-century birch-bark manuscripts—important examples of Old Russian writing. He warned the archive building is already dilapidated and that any explosion could threaten the holdings; inspectors were checking for new cracks. The façade, windows and paintings were damaged. Staff are working to repair the building, protect collections and continue digitization efforts.
Russian officials and pro-Russian outlets alleged that “foreign mercenaries” were sheltering in the archive building; Khromov denied these claims. The strikes also damaged a 19th-century building that once served as a prison and now houses the National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regime. Ukrainian historian and lawmaker Volodymyr Viatrovych said nearly all the museum’s windows—memorials to Stalinist-era crimes—were shattered, but he insisted that the culture of remembrance remains intact.
Ukraine’s Culture Ministry said it is documenting attacks on cultural heritage and preparing a report for UNESCO. Minister Tetyana Berezhna wrote on Facebook that cultural heritage must not be targeted and that Ukrainian authorities are working with international partners to hold perpetrators accountable.
UNESCO said it was deeply alarmed by the strikes, reminding parties that cultural property is protected under the 1954 Hague Convention and the 1972 World Heritage Convention. The agency offered support for damage assessments, protective measures and emergency assistance.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced that UNESCO experts will travel to Lviv to document the damage. Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said international partners had condemned the attack but that Ukraine is demanding concrete measures, including sanctions aimed at Russia’s cultural sector and excluding Russian representatives from international cultural events. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has launched a petition calling for Russia’s expulsion from UNESCO; director Oleksandr Alfyorov argued that Russia should not be allowed to participate in international institutions.
According to the Culture Ministry, since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Russian forces have damaged more than 1,700 cultural artifacts and about 2,500 cultural infrastructure sites in Ukraine, with 513 of those sites reported completely destroyed.
This article was originally written in Ukrainian.