Saint Sophia Cathedral and its monastic buildings – once the religious center of the Kyiv principality and symbolizing the "new Constantinople" – and Lviv's historic center founded in the late Middle Ages in western Ukraine have been added to UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list. In a decision adopted on Friday, September 15 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee stated that, due to the threat of destruction caused by the Russian offensive launched against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, "optimal conditions are no longer met to fully guarantee the protection of the outstanding universal value of the property and that it is threatened by potential danger due to the war."

Following the inscription of Odesa's historic center in southern Ukraine and that of the ancient Kingdom of Saba in Marib, Yemen, at an extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee in January 2023, the addition of two new Ukrainian sites has confirmed the growing challenge that armed conflicts pose to the protection and preservation of sites.

"We are conscious that the world's emergencies are increasing with disasters caused by humans as well as natural disasters," said Krista Pikkat, the director of the culture and emergencies entity in UNESCO's culture sector. Pikkat is currently acting in response to the earthquake in Morocco, which has destroyed heritage gems including World heritage sites.

"UNESCO has begun to work in a more focused way on emergencies and preparing for them. No one is immune," Pikkat said. Within the United Nations entities, the wake-up call came in in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in central Afghanistan, followed in 2012, by the destruction of the Timbuktu mausoleums in northern Mali by the Ansar Dine group of radical Islamists. And in 2017,  the UN Security Council adopted a resolution for the protection of cultural heritage in times of war and armed conflict.

A site inscribed on the list of World Heritage in Danger provides UNESCO with the means to protect or even save a listed heritage property. As was the case with the tombs of the Buganda kings in Kasubi, central Uganda, that were destroyed by fire in 2020. The site, rebuilt with UNESCO's support and Japan in particular, was removed from the endangered heritage list at the committee's meeting in Riyadh.

"When you're inscribed on the World Heritage in Danger list, you feel as if the world is going to fall on you. Our pain was shared around the world. Thanks to the support of the World Heritage Committee and UNESCO, this spiritual site has been recreated. The gates have been opened again to our country and to the culture of our ancestors," said a delighted Charles Peter Mayiga, katikkiro (prime minister) of the kingdom of Buganda.

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