Archaeological Heritage as a Target during War

The conflict in Ukraine has caused the large-scale destruction of historical landscapes. Thousands of archaeological sites—both those undergoing archaeological investigations as well as ones that had yet to be opened—have been damaged. Currently, cultural heritage protection activities in Ukraine focus mainly on ‘visible’ objects, such as architectural monuments, religious and historical buildings and objects of monumental art. Monitoring the state of archaeological heritage objects in Ukraine is a challenge. The search for and recognition of sites is difficult because they exist in an ‘unmanifested’ state. The vast majority of archaeological sites are not included on the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine. Moreover, the necessary monument protection measures are not applied consistently throughout all territories. The specificity of archaeological sites is that their discovery is often directly related to catastrophic events: in the current case, the destruction of landscape resulting from military operations.