Many believe destruction of cultural assets is part of Kremlin strategy to ‘erase’ Ukraine as independent sovereign state
Standing in front of Lviv’s Latin cathedral, Lilya Onyshchenko offered her view of the invading Russians. “They are barbarians. They don’t care what they destroy,” she said. “I haven’t met Hitler. I think Putin is worse. He’s a devil, not a human,” she added, standing in the historic centre of one of Europe’s most culturally important cities.
Behind her, construction workers were busy erecting scaffolding around a Renaissance chapel. The friezes showing Jesus – in the garden of Gethsemane, being arrested by Roman soldiers – were about to be wrapped up. Around the corner a team perched on a giant crane were boarding up the cathedral’s stain-glass windows.
