The United Nations cultural agency on Friday placed the culture of cooking borscht soup in Ukraine on its list of cultural heritage in danger, a move called for by Kyiv but vehemently opposed by Moscow.
Ukraine considers borsch — a thick, nutritious soup usually made with beetroot — its national dish, though it’s also widely eaten in Russia, other former Soviet countries, and Poland.
The culture of Ukrainian borscht cuisine “was today inscribed by a UNESCO committee on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Urgent Protection”.
The decision was approved after an accelerated process triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “negative impact on that tradition” of the war, UNESCO said.
Kyiv welcomed the move, and Ukraine’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko told Telegram that “victory in the borsch war is ours…will win both in the borsch war and in this war.”
With the inclusion of soup culture in the UNESCO list, attention should be mobilized in order to preserve it despite the threat to its existence.
The committee noted that the war had threatened “the viability” of soup culture in Ukraine.
“Displacement of people (poses a threat)…as people are not only unable to cook or grow local vegetables for borscht, but also come together…undermining the social and cultural well-being of communities.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had criticized the move as an attempt to categorize him “with a people … a nationality … This is xenophobia,” she said.
However, UNESCO noted that Ukrainian borscht was just a version of a dish popular elsewhere and was essential to everyday life in the country.
“Ukrainian borsch — the national version of borsch consumed in several countries in the region — is an integral part of Ukrainian family and community life.”
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