State Department Creates $7 Million Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Initiative Fund

The flag of Ukraine is seen beside the Peace Tower, on the same day as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to Parliament in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on March 15, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

The Department of State has allocated $7 million to a Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response initiative.

The state department spokesperson’s office issued a note about the Initiative on Feb. 23, saying the department was prompted to action due to Ukranian’s “cultural identity and heritage” being “under continuous threat and attack by Russian forces.”

“The U.S. Department of State announced an initial $7 million investment in the Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response Initiative, which will support Ukraine’s efforts to protect and preserve its cultural heritage from Russia’s continuous threats and barbaric attacks,” a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is investing the money to support Ukrainian efforts to protect their cultural heritage.

According to the State Department’s press release, the initiative will prioritize cultural heritage locations and collections that are believed to have been harmed by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine. The ECA will work in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Ukrainian NGOs, and foreign partners.

The program will allow the ECA to assist with tasks like recording damaged collections and sites for accountability, safeguarding against damage and theft, stabilizing damaged sites in an emergency, creating and implementing conservation and restoration plans, coordinating cultural heritage response efforts, and receiving specialized training.

The initiative is an addition to larger programs managed by the ECA’s Cultural Heritage Center to support emergency preparedness and response, track Russia’s destruction of cultural assets in Ukraine through the Conflict Observatory, and promote public-private partnerships to safeguard cultural assets.

With the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the United States has worked with the Government of Ukraine on cultural heritage conservation and preservation for over 20 years.

When asked about whether the State Department would provide a breakdown of where the U.S. Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response Initiative funding was spent, a Department of State spokesperson told The Epoch Times that information was not yet available, but more details would likely be offered in the future.

The spokesperson said that “The Department will make future announcements on grant awards through this Initiative, as appropriate.”

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

Concerns about the use of that funding prompted Samantha Power, who leads the U.S. Agency for International Development, to assure Americans that the administration doesn’t have “any evidence that U.S. assistance is being misused or misspent.”

Recent data indicates the total amount of U.S. taxpayer-funded military aid provided to Kyiv in the past 12 months is around $32 billion, which is roughly five times Ukraine’s annual military budget. The total military and humanitarian aid given to Ukraine in the last year is estimated to be over $100 billion.