The pilot project of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine to introduce the “Culture in Recovery” school for communities will be very relevant in regions that have been severely affected by the hostilities.
This was stated by the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Olena Kovalska, at a briefing at Ukrinform.
“Today, we consider culture to be an element of the national security system. This has been outlined by the President as one of the 10 points of the sustainability plan. To be honest, this is probably the most powerful program in the work of the Ministry of Culture. After all, it addresses very strategic issues at the tactical and rational levels, and also provides a real tool for implementing the strategies laid down by the state — the President’s strategy and the national strategy. In addition, the project is very much in line with the decentralization program, where each region not only receives resources but also receives the “skills” to implement them,” Kovalska noted.
According to her, today there is a particular demand for cultural projects within the framework of recovery programs in eastern and southern Ukraine.
“The country is going through a period of renewal and rethinking of itself as Ukrainians. This is about our mentality, our culture, and our identity. That is why it is so important to ban all enemy influence on our country and create new cultural content so that the next generation of Ukrainians will not have to rethink this, but will already think this way…. I travel a lot around the regions, communicating with cultural departments and local cultural figures. I would say that there is literally a “hunger” in the regions, that is, there is an extraordinary need for cultural context. Moreover, compared to Kyiv, people in the regions perceive cultural projects much more emotionally. This is especially true in the east and south of the country. This is incredibly important for supporting people,” said the representative of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Olena Kovalska and Olena Shkrum
She was supported by Olena Shkrum, First Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine.
“If we talk about communities that have suffered 70-90% damage, such as Bucha, Borodianka, Posad-Pokrovsk in the Kherson region, other communities in the Kherson region, Yagidne, where every house and 90% of roads and schools have been destroyed, the communities are asking not only for physical restoration. People are returning (home, to their cities — ed.) for emotional restoration, for the restoration of hope, for the restoration of their vision of the future in this house, in this city. Therefore, without culture and tourist attractions, without memorial sites, this is almost impossible to do,” Shkrum said.
She explained that it is very difficult for such communities to find money for reconstruction on their own.
“In the last years of the war, we have done a lot in terms of physical recovery, grants and loans have come in, but very little has been done to restore cultural sites. There were not enough funds for this, it always remained a lower priority, but now we are coming to the concept of comprehensive restoration. And in fact, it is very difficult for communities to find funds. Funds are becoming increasingly scarce. Today, the only and first country that supports the restoration of culture and supports Ukrainian cultural heritage is Italy. We have now signed an intergovernmental agreement with Italy on the restoration of the cultural heritage of the center of Odesa,” Shkrum said.
She also expressed the opinion that thanks to the implementation of the Culture for Recovery platform and the Culture for Recovery school projects, the government and the ICC will be able to involve many more partners.
“The restoration of historic buildings, museums, and theaters is very important for European countries. The fact is that the cultural heritage that has been destroyed in many cities is not only Ukraine’s heritage. It is also UNESCO’s cultural heritage. It is the cultural heritage of Italy, Greece, and many other countries,” she added.
As reported by Ukrinform, as part of the Culture for Recovery platform, a school for communities called “Culture in Recovery” is being launched in Ukraine, a project that will help to consolidate the cultural component in recovery plans.
In Rome, at the session “Culture and Tourism: Catalysts for Ukraine’s Recovery,” the Cultural Recovery Platform and a pilot educational project for communities were presented.
The first 16 communities have already joined the platform during the Ukraine-Italy Local Government Forum, which took place prior to the Conference in Rome.
Prior to this, in February 2025, the first international conference on Ukrainian culture, “Cooperation for Sustainability,” was held in Uzhhorod, organized on the initiative of the ICC in partnership with European countries and international organizations. The conference resulted in the adoption of a Declaration on Strengthening the Sustainability of the Cultural Sector, which enshrined the political recognition of culture as one of the fundamental factors for sustainable recovery, democratic transformation, and trust in society.
Photo: Kyrylo Chubotin / Ukrinform
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Source: Greatest demand for cultural projects seen in eastern and southern Ukraine, says OP
