UNESCO mobilized over 70 million US dollars for Ukraine’s needs since full-scale invasion - Head of the UNESCO Office in Ukraine

An exclusive interview with the Head of the UNESCO Antenna in Ukraine Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency

Text: Maria Stupak, Iryna Dorosh

The full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine turned three years old. How has UNESCO been helping Ukraine all this time?

UNESCO has been assisting Ukrainian institutions and populations since the aftermath of 24th of February 2022. Initially, we have worked mainly through missions and remotely from Paris, because we didn't have a presence, an office in the country. Аnd after, since the beginning of October, the Director General of UNESCO has appointed me to be present here.

We have opened a presence, and now we have an antenna since then, with more than 40 staff already in Kyiv, but also with colleagues in Lviv and in Odesa. And we have been assisting Ukraine in three main domains: first of all, since the beginning, the attention was on ensuring continuity of access to learning for students, secondly - the protection of cultural heritage, and the third, the safety of journalists and the support for continued access to information.

From the beginning, our approach has been twofold: on one hand, focusing on how to support Ukrainians in coping with the emergency caused by war-related damage and the broader context — for example, by supporting the livelihoods of journalists and artists; and on the other hand, investing in professionals by providing necessary training and capacity building. The war has also highlighted the importance of professionals in certain fields — for example, the need to introduce new methodologies to cope with the situation, to secure museums, and to ensure that proper documentation and inventories are in place.