”Crime against science”: building of the National Arctic Center in Kyiv damaged by Russian missile attack

Mykhailo Zahorodnii, UP. Zhyttia journalist

As a result of Russian shelling on 10 October, the Kyiv-based office of the National Antarctic Science Center was damaged.

Source: Facebook page of the National Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine

The employees were not injured, but the building requires maintenance.

The Centre workers were able to enter the building only today [on 13 October]. All windows in the rooms were broken; pieces of broken glass plunged into the wooden door.

The internal concrete sections of the building were also damaged, there are cracks on them, but the data on servers and unique paper archives were saved.

Damaged Centre’s building

Quote by the Centre: “The smashed group photos of all Ukrainian Antarctic expeditions hurt our feelings really badly, indeed.

As our guests could see, according to [our] tradition, there were group photos of all the wintering [expedition] teams in the Director’s office – now there are 26 [of these photos] in total. Fortunately, this can also be restored”.

Broken frames and photos of expedition teams

After that, the employees of the National Antarctic Scientific Centre at the Akademik Vernadsky polar station sent a message to their colleagues from other stations about crimes committed not only against the civilian population, but also against science.

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Currently, the Centre’s employees continue to work and prepare the next expedition of Ukrainian scientists who will head for the Akademik Vernadsky station.

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