Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: On the ground with WMF

The World Monuments Fund is an independent organisation based in New York devoted to safeguarding heritage locations to build mutual understanding across cultures and communities. Since 1965, its global team of experts has preserved cultural heritage at more than 700 sites in 112 countries. Today one of the countries in need of special attention is, of course, Ukraine.One of the many specialists helping to protect Ukraine’s cultural heritage is Dr Kateryna Goncharova, Ukraine Heritage Crisis Specialist at the World Monuments Fund. For a number of years she has been involved with the preservation of architectural heritage and historical sites of Ukraine. Previously, she worked as Head of the Research Department at the Ukrainian State Research and Project Institute for Historic Preservation. We ask her about her view of on the scale of damage of heritage in Ukraine, current needs and projects being realised to safeguard cultural heritage.Podcast co-host and Head of the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków, Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska spoke to Kateryna during a meeting of the European Commission-led expert sub-group on the safeguarding of cultural heritage in Ukraine. The meeting was held in January 2024 in Brussels to develop a set of recommendations for the Government of Ukraine and for the Commission itself in the field of protection and reconstruction of tangible and intangible heritage following hostilities. This podcast was produced in the frame of and as an outcome of the European Heritage Hub pilot project co-funded by the European Union.