U.S. Department of State Announces Project to Protect Ukrainian State Archives

With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine placing Ukrainian cultural identity and heritage under continuous threat, the U.S. Department of State announced today a project to protect and digitize collections of the State Archival Services of Ukraine (SAS), thereby ensuring that Ukrainian history, through its archives, will be safeguarded for generations to come.

Implemented in cooperation with the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH), the $645,000 project is the latest activity supported by ECA’s Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response Initiative.  The project includes training for SAS staff in the management and digitization of archival records at risk of damage or destruction.  SAS materials that will be preserved include archival records in the Ukrainian language that are central to Ukraine’s unique identity and to understanding the country’s history.

The Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response Initiative, with overall funding of $10.5 million, supports Ukraine’s efforts to protect and repair damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage sites and collections, as well as expand and strengthen public-private partnerships with civil society in Ukraine.  The Initiative prioritizes cultural heritage sites and collections directly impacted by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and is part of the United States’ broader global efforts to preserve and protect cultural heritage.  The Initiative complements broader efforts coordinated by the Department’s Cultural Heritage Center to support emergency preparedness and response, monitor Russia’s destruction of cultural heritage in Ukraine, and foster public-private partnerships to preserve and protect cultural heritage.

These efforts build on more than 20 years of U.S. engagement on cultural heritage protection and preservation work with the Government of Ukraine through the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).  To learn more about U.S. efforts to preserve and protect Ukraine’s cultural heritage, click here.

For further information, please contact [email protected].