"Victory in the war for borshch is ours. Today, on July 1, at the Fifth extraordinary session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, at the request of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the element "Culture of Ukrainian borshch cooking" was included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Immediate Protection," Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Telegram.

As the Ministry of Culture noted, the members of the Committee had pointed out in the decision that "the element performs the function of social integration and cohesion, which serves the unification of the people of Ukraine, regardless of age, gender or origin. In this sense, the element demonstrates the important role of intangible cultural heritage during armed conflicts and emergency situations."

"The battle for borshch had begun even before the war. No matter how much Masha Zakharova said that "cookery books were banned, and the recipe of the dish was kept secret and it was forbidden to cook" and in general, our borshch is "a manifestation of extremism and Nazism," this "manifestation of extremism" is now officially Ukrainian, and officially under the protection of UNESCO," Tkachenko stated.

The Ministry of Culture reminds us that, given the threats to Ukrainian cultural heritage due to Russian aggression, the Ministry of culture appealed to UNESCO with a request to transfer the previously submitted nomination to the UNESCO List of Urgent Protection.