Acting Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna and Valérie Freeland, Executive Director of the International alliance for the protection of heritage (ALIPH), have signed a memorandum in Brussels on 4 September to establish the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund.
Source: Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications
Details: The fund is intended to coordinate and manage international financial assistance for the preservation and recovery of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
Its main office will be located in an EU member state, with a representative office in Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund will become a reliable and transparent platform to channel international support into specific projects – from safeguarding collections to restoring damaged sites. By establishing clear rules of governance and cooperation with our partners, we are creating not just another fund, but an effective mechanism that ensures accountability and long-term impact. This is an important investment in Ukraine’s resilience and recovery,” emphasised Tetiana Berezhna.
Key objectives of the fund include:
attracting donor contributions;organising competitive project selections;supporting digital transformation in heritage management;developing a professional cultural community.
Why is this fund necessary?
Berezhna previously announced in August that the fund would launch in autumn, following discussions at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, where the Cultural Resilience Alliance and plans for the fund were presented.
“We plan to establish this fund in the autumn. It will be an independent institution operating outside of Ukraine, but it will direct funds raised from partners towards reconstruction. By the end of the year, we plan to raise UAH 500 million [about US$12 million – ed.] for the recovery of Ukraine’s cultural heritage,” said Berezhna.
At the time of the trip to Rome, the minister of culture and strategic communications was Mykola Tochytskyi, who stated then that seven countries had pledged contributions to the Fund starting from €1 million.
Earlier, experts Olha Sahaidak, head of the Coalition for Culture, and Volodymyr Vorobei, director of the PPV Agency, who attended a workshop in Florence on the creation of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund (UCHF), explained to Ukrainska Pravda.Kultura what functions the Fund would perform.
The experts noted that the Fund’s primary focus would be the conservation of damaged monuments, the restoration of movable heritage objects, and the construction of storage facilities to evacuate paintings, sculptures, archaeological items, and objects from natural history and local history museums from threatened areas.
Post-war tasks will primarily focus on the restoration of immovable cultural heritage sites.
Background: On 18 August, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko presented the Draft Government Action Programme, which includes 12 priority areas, one of which is culture. Svyrydenko stated that the government plans to begin the restoration of at least 10 cultural heritage sites by the end of 2025 and aims to raise no less than UAH 500 million by 2026 for the preservation and restoration of cultural monuments.
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