Satellite imagery and geospatial analysis reveals extent of damage to sites in occupied region

Russian forces have desecrated multiple ancient Ukrainian burial mounds in Zaporizhzhia, a Russian-occupied region of southeastern Ukraine, according to a new report by the Conflict Observatory, which studies Russia's destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage by analysing high-resolution satellite imagery.

The report, released on 4 September, details the impact of Russian military actions on the mounds, known as kurgans, in the Vasylivka district, where dozens of them are located.

When President Vladimir Putin launched Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, parts of the Zaporizhzhia region were soon occupied. The report, which cites data from the open-source intelligence company Janes and the Institute for the Study of War, identifies the 429th Motor Rifle Regiment as controlling the area of the mounds. "The damage includes the construction of military infrastructure at the archaeological sites and the creation of a large, lewd geoglyph in the shape of a phallus in an adjacent field," the report states. Military use of the sites and the risks to heritage "are a potential violation of customary international humanitarian law and the Hague and Geneva Conventions."

Zaporizhzhia is part of an area known as the Wild Fields that has thousands of mounds, which are of archaeological and ecological significance. "At up to 20 metres tall, kurgans act as landmarks in the otherwise flat landscape of the Ukrainian steppe. Kurgans are significant archaeologically because they provide some of the best evidence of prehistoric life in Ukraine, with burial mounds dating as far back as 3000 BCE," according to the report.

The Conflict Observatory, created shortly after the invasion of Ukraine and funded primarily by the US State Department, is a non-governmental consortium of independent research partners. The report was compiled by the Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis (Curia) Lab at the University of Virginia. Curia uses sensing technology, including commercial satellite technology and geospatial analysis, to document the Russian invasion's impact on cultural heritage.

Fiona Greenland, the co-chair of Curia and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, tells The Art Newspaper: "We can't say for sure what the Russians' motives were. We can say that it's very likely they understood the cultural value of these mounds. Kurgans are widely recognised in Ukraine and Russia. So, the question becomes, why did Russian armed forces do nothing to protect the sites from harm and, in fact, inflict damage? One part of the answer must be that their actions at these sites are consistent with the Russian Federation's sustained hostility towards Ukrainian culture."

Maxar satellite imagery from 15 October 2023 revealed "a large, graphic geoglyph" that "is visible approximately 270m directly east of the largest mound and 70m from the trench line intersecting the area between the mound and geoglyph." The 58m long by 39m wide phallus-shaped geoglyph "appears to have been mowed into the vegetation". By 7 June, "six new military installations were visible between the geoglyph and the treeline east of the kurgans indicating continued activity at the site." The report's co-authors, Damian Koropeckyj, an archaeologist and a researcher at Curia Lab, and Kate Harrell, a historian with US Navy History and Heritage Command, say: "This symbol was clearly meant to be seen from above by satellite or UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]."

For war crimes charges to be levied, "further legal analysis will need to be conducted to apply the relevant international legal frameworks to the facts that we have outlined in this report. This includes applying definitions of cultural property and analysing details specific to the context of the military activity undertaken in these locations," they say.