VILNIUS – Lithuanian Culture Minister Simonas Kairys is taking part in a discussion session on protecting and preserving Ukraine's cultural heritage at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in Berlin on Wednesday.
The Culture Ministry has said Kairys will present the results of an international conference, entitled Towards the Recovery of the Culture Sector of Ukraine, which Vilnius hosted last week.
The Vilnius conference adopted a concluding document supported by 31 countries, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations, and endorsed an updated Action Plan for Culture in Ukraine, prepared by UNESCO with international partners.
Kairys said at the conference in the Lithuanian capital that the document not only envisages assistance to Ukraine in restoring specific cultural sites but also commits to giving special attention to the restoration or preservation of such assets at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
As part of Lithuania's commitments, Vilnius Municipality last week pledged to allocate 300,000 euros for the reconstruction of Dnipro's Taras Shevchenko Theater.
UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Renato Ottone Ramirez said that the restoration of Ukraine's cultural sites could cost at least 6.9 billion US dollars.
Kyiv estimates that Russia has destroyed or damaged 1,062 cultural sites in 18 regions in Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Of these, 123 are of national importance and 864 are of local significance.
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