Ukraine’s Odesa city put on UNESCO heritage in danger list

By SYLVIE CORBET and ELAINE GANLEY
The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — The United Nations’ cultural agency has added the historic center of Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa to the list of World Heritage sites in danger. The decision was made Wednesday at an extraordinary session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in Paris. The agency’s director- general said the “legendary port that left its mark in cinema, literature and the arts” now has been “placed under the reinforced protection of the international community.” Changes to the text proposed by Russia delayed the 21-member committee’s vote. In the end, six delegates voted in favor, one voted no and 14 abstained. Russia’s delegate lambasted the decision, alleging that pressure prevailed and scientific objectivity “was shamefully violated.”