Poland in the Council of Europe

Before the war, there were 5,000 in Ukraine. museums, 65 historical and cultural reserves and approx. 170 thousand registered monuments, including seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Tomasz Grzywaczewski, a Polish journalist and war correspondent, documented the destruction of Ukrainian monuments from Lviv, through Chernikhov, Ivanki, Kiev, Kharkov, to Izium and Bohorodiczne. He also presented the stories of people who wanted to save the cultural heritage and heritage of their homeland, determined to rebuild their country as soon as possible, affected by crimes against the heritage of both secular and sacred culture.

In line with the principle "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine", the event began with speeches by the Permanent Representative of Poland, Ambassador Jerzy Baurski, who emphasized that the Council of Europe is a place for dialogue on peace and there is no tolerance for the criminal actions of the aggressor. The Ukrainian Ambassador Borys Tarasyuk emphasized that Russia seeks to erase the Ukrainian identity and destroy its cultural heritage, its deliberate actions are genocidal in nature and this film is proving this.

During the discussion preceding the screening of the document, Director Matjaž Gruden noted that Russia's full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine destroys not only the Ukrainian heritage, but also the common heritage of European countries. He emphasized that culture in this war is undoubtedly the priority goal of the aggressor. Tomasz Grzywaczewski noted that Russian aggression not only destroys valuable cultural heritage objects, but also affects people of culture.

The event enjoyed great interest among and became an inspiration for further cooperation among the member states of the Council of Europe in the protection of the common cultural heritage of Europe, as well as cooperation in the recovery of the cultural property of Ukraine. The importance of the new instrument of the Council of Europe - the Register of Damage caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine - was emphasized together with the provisions of the Warsaw Recommendation on the reconstruction of cultural heritage which was also recalled as a document of significant importance in the ongoing talks on the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine after the end of the war.