Andres Schipani’s report “Culture: Battle to save churches and heritage” (April 16) concludes with the comment of Father Nestor Kyzyk that “without the past we’ll never have a future”.
As many as 29 churches and other historic buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Mariupol and Kharkiv. Yet Russia is a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (as is Ukraine) and Moscow has clear obligations to protect cultural sites.
What might help is if English Heritage and other guardians of historic buildings in the UK were to assist the Ukrainians on how best to protect their heritage and what precautions might be taken to safeguard both the treasures and the buildings, many of which are made from wood and hundreds of years old.
We have the skills. Let’s share them.
Lee Callaghan
London N22, UK