Digital Documentation of Losses of Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage in the Context of War: Information Resources and Recording Practices

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to systematise modern digital tools and information platforms used to record damage to cultural heritage sites in Ukraine, as well as to determine their role in forming the evidence base for war crimes against culture and planning post-war restoration. The methodological basis of the work is the analysis of scientific sources, the generalisation of modern practices of digital documentation, and a comparative analysis of the activities of state, international, and public initiatives in the field of cultural heritage preservation. The study analyses the functioning of state digital registers of cultural heritage, international platforms for monitoring destruction, and volunteer digital projects aimed at archiving cultural resources and creating digital models of monuments. Particular attention is paid to the use of OSINT technologies, satellite monitoring, photogrammetry, and 3D scanning to record damage. It has been shown that the integration of various digital tools forms a multi-level system for documenting cultural losses, combining state information systems, international research platforms, and crowdsourcing initiatives. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive generalisation of modern digital practices for documenting cultural losses and the substantiation of the concept of digital sustainability of cultural heritage, which involves the preservation of information about cultural objects in multi-level digital systems even in the event of their physical destruction. The study also identifies the main technical and methodological challenges of digital documentation of cultural heritage, including cybersecurity, information verification, and long-term storage of large amounts of digital data. Conclusions. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary information resources and technological practices of digital documentation of cultural heritage losses in Ukraine amid the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. It examines the transformation of approaches to recording the condition of cultural monuments that has occurred as a result of military threats and limited access to combat zones. It shows that traditional systems for recording cultural assets, based on paper documentation, have proven insufficiently effective for the rapid documentation of destruction and loss. The results obtained can be used for the further development of digital systems for recording cultural heritage, the formation of an international evidence base for war crimes against culture, and the development of strategies for the post-war restoration of Ukraine’s cultural environment.