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UNITED24 and Unbreakable Ukraine Turn War-Damaged Cultural Heritage Into School Reconstruction Drive
UNITED24, Ukraine's official state fundraising platform, has partnered with the immersive exhibition Unbreakable Ukraine to raise funds to rebuild the country's war-damaged schools. The initiative treats the preservation of cultural memory as a means of protecting the generation that will carry it forward.
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The partnership coincides with the show's international debut at the Ars Electronica Festival, running September 9 to 13 in Linz, Austria. Organizers described the installation as a record of what still stands and a warning about what could be lost.
The two roles are distinct. According to the project's organizers, the exhibition is presented by the BORISTENE Cultural Association and co-produced by the Italian immersive studio SARAVÁ Project together with the Ars Electronica Futurelab.
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Its high-resolution 3D scans were provided by the Ukrainian digital heritage organizations Skeiron and HEMO Lab.
Unbreakable Ukraine uses high-resolution 3D scans captured inside an active war zone, cinematic animation, and poetic storytelling to place visitors inside five landmarks that define Ukrainian identity, the organizers explained.
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The exhibition was produced by the Italian immersive studio SARAVÁ Project in collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab, presented by the BORISTENE Cultural Association, and built from scans provided by the Ukrainian digitalization partners Skeiron and HEMO Lab.
That fundraising role is separate from the production. Every visitor will be invited to donate to the UNITED24 Education and Science program, turning reflection on what Ukraine has lost into direct support for what it is rebuilding.
The exhibition takes audiences inside five sites, several already struck:
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, an 11th-century UNESCO World Heritage Site whose cornice was partially destroyed by a Russian blast wave on June 10, 2025;
Saint George's Cathedral in Lviv, an 18th-century baroque Greek Catholic cathedral inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List;
The Odesa Opera House, the oldest opera theater in Ukraine, blends Italian Renaissance, Viennese Baroque, and Rococo styles;
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The Chernihiv Regional Library, a late-19th-century intellectual center significantly damaged by Russian shelling on March 11, 2022;
Karazin Kharkiv National University in Kharkiv, founded in 1804 and repeatedly struck by Russian missiles during the invasion.
The project is implemented under the patronage of the Office of the President of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine. Its presentation marks the start of a permanent home at the Ars Electronica Center and an international tour through the festival's museum network.
The project is supported by sponsor partners Kozytskyi Charity Foundation, ZAG—Zenyk Art Gallery, TAD, Melnyk Family Foundation, and Tradex Agri Group, with special thanks to Serhiy Ustenko, Victoriya Boklag, and Nikola Vasiljevic.
Ukraine’s cultural heritage sites have been repeatedly targeted during the ongoing war. A Russian Shahed drone struck the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on June 15, 2026, damaging roughly 80 percent of the Uspensky Cathedral's roof and prompting Switzerland and UNESCO to commit $730,000 toward its restoration. By mid-August 2026, investigators had documented damage or destruction at 1,990 heritage sites and identified eleven Russian servicemen as suspects in crimes against cultural property.
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