In a guest post, I solicited support for an open letter from leading Ukrainian cultural figures to UNESCO dated October 21, 2024, which calls on the government to postpone decisions on the city's cultural heritage until the end of the war, when democratic processes are resumed and the residents of the city can exercise their say. The reason for the letter was the decision to rename more than a hundred streets in Odessa and remove nineteen monuments. Many of these toponyms and monuments commemorate important figures in the city's cultural landscape, which is protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
