2023-06-15 13:51:00
Tens of thousands of people were directly affected by the floods following the Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine, and oil products and other hazardous substances could cause serious damage to nature and animals in the affected region. Once again, the destruction, which many observers call a war crime (the European Parliament on Thursday, June 15, condemned the “terror attack on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station”), threatens both cultural values and, therefore, the history of Ukraine.
Churches, monuments and museums were under water in the Kherson region, archaeological sites of the Scythians, a Greek settlement of the 400s BC. e. have been damaged or irretrievably destroyed.
“The damage affects cultural and historical sites from different centuries,” Kilian Heck, an art historian at the University of Greifswald, said in an interview with DW. He initiated meetings of German cultural institutions with Ukrainian counterparts, the first of which took place in early March 2022, a week after the Russian invasion. From online meetings, a private initiative “Ukraine Art Aid Center” (German name – “Netzwerk Kulturgutschutz Ukraine”) was formed. An initiative of the same name also exists at the government level, but these are two different projects.
According to him, “Ukraine is one of the first places in the world where archaeological sites were discovered.” In addition, the flood-stricken region in southern Ukraine has been the center of Cossack culture since the 16th century and acquired a symbolic meaning for the country’s independence.
While the extent of damage is difficult to assess
At present, it is impossible to assess the extent of the damage, information is still scarce. Most of the flooded region is occupied by Russian troops, and the front line runs along the Dnieper.
In addition to archaeological sites, according to official Ukrainian information, the Museum-estate of the writer Ostap Vyshnya in the village of Krynky, which was completely restored in 2020, and the Kherson Art Museum named after Alexei Shovkunenko were flooded.
In the flooded city of Oleshki, the house-museum of the Ukrainian artist Polina Rayko was damaged by water. She began painting only at the age of 69 and painted the walls of the house with frescoes. The building is part of the official cultural heritage of Ukraine. The destroyed dam itself is also considered an architecturally significant cultural monument.
“The scale of the problems is still unknown,” says Kilian Heck. German art historians and museum experts help organize the delivery of packaging materials, generators and dryers to Ukraine to protect and save works of art.
“During the war, the work of saving cultural objects has become a certain routine – says Kilian Heck – packing, storage in basements or evacuation.” Flooding is a problem on a whole new scale. “There are hardly any means of an adequate response in terms of preserving cultural objects. This is a new form of destruction of cultural values,” the German art critic emphasizes.
During online meetings, German art critics exchange ideas with colleagues from Ukraine. Colleagues from flood areas have recently reported bodies floating in the water, washed out by water masses from cemeteries. Carcasses of animals also float in the water. All this increases fears about possible epidemics. “The most important thing at the moment is the installation of special water filters,” emphasizes Kilian Heck.
The Ukrainian authorities called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate the destruction of the dam. The reservoir contained about 18 billion cubic meters of water. Authorities in the Kherson region said the collapse of the dam flooded 600 square kilometers of territory, an area almost twice the size of Munich.
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