More than 1,443 scientific facilities have been damaged or destroyed along with 750 pieces of vital technical equipment of Ukraine because of Russian advance into Ukraine. most of which is beyond repair, UNESCO said in a report.
Ukraine was the scientific superpower and was heavily hit as many students were asked to evacuate during COVID and The Russian offence.
It will cost more than $1 billion to rebuild Ukraine’s public scientific infrastructure, according to a new United Nations report that found nearly 1,500 buildings belonging to scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed during the last two years of war. This would take sages for Ukraine to build back all lost science centers.
The report, published Monday by the U.N. Education, Scientific 
and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, found that 1,443 buildings and laboratories belonging to 177 institutes and universities have been either damaged or destroyed by the war along with more than 750 pieces of research equipment, most of these building were in the east of Ukraine the masin start point for the Russian invasion.
The UN organisation estimates that $1.26 billion will be required to restore the public science research infrastructure in the nation including $980 million for universities that are responsible for 52% of public research in the war torn nation.
“As the situation becomes more and more critical for the scientific community, we must protect and support their research in Ukraine,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
“Scientists, engineers and other experts will be essential to the country’s recovery, not to mention what this sector represents as a valuable source of innovation and discovery for the rest of the world.”
How much of Ukraine’s Infrastructure is lost?
According to the report, the war has had far-reaching implications on Ukraine’s scientific infrastructure, which was once internationally renowned, especially concerning computer science, nuclear physics and astronomy, the Kyiv airport served as a base for the Vande Bharat Mission to rescue Indian students stuck in Ukraine during war and COVID.
A total 10,429 Ukrainian scientists and university teachers have either become internally displaced or were forced to emigrate because of the war in the nation,After the nationclosed its airspace they couldn’t leaver the country anymore it said, adding that 1,518 scientists have volunteered for combat.
The budget for the National Academy of Sciences has also seen a 48% drop from $238.6 million in 2021 to its current $124. 8 million. The war also appears to be affecting the number of articles published in international journals by the National Academy of Sciences, with the report stating there was a drop of 7% between 2021 and last year, stumping technological l development.
According to the report, the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technologies sustained the highest number of destroyed or damaged buildings at 61, followed by the Institute of Single Crystals with 41 and the Subbotin Institute of Geophysics at 29.
The report also raises concerns over the situation at the Institute of Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants near Zaporizhzhya, which has been occupied by Russia since early in the war and is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, any misuse of the plant could leave in catastrophic line of events in eastern europe. Thai also has blocked the energy output leaving many without blackouts.
The report states that all scientific equipment used to monitor the country’s nuclear industry has been either destroyed or damaged and would take a lot of time to build them back.
“The loss of the institute’s scientific equipment could endanger the nuclear safety and health of more than 2 billion inhabitants of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia,” the report said.
The announcement came after UNESCO in the last month said Ukraine’s culture and tourism sector has lost more than $19 billion in revenue because of the war with the amount of damage sustained by its cultural property amounting to nearly $3.5 billion. The tourism is at level 0 as the Ukrainian airspace has been closed.
The U.N. organisation said that nearly $9 billion will be needed over the next decade to rebuild the sector. Ukrainians are devastated.
The Ukrainian government said in September that 823 cultural heritage sites have been either damaged or destroyed, including 109 sites of national importance, 650 of local important and 64 that were recently discovered, thai si very dad news to have lost places of significant interest and cultural hotspots.
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