The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy expects the culture of cooking Ukrainian borsch to be included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind as soon as possible, the Ministry's press service reported following a meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage.

"Ukraine will continue to make efforts to protect the element of ‘Culture of cooking Ukrainian borsch,’ because for us it is the embodiment of identity, our faith in victory. We hope that we will soon be able to transfer the ‘Culture of cooking Ukrainian borsch’ from the List of elements in need of urgent protection to a Representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind," said Deputy Minister of Culture Anastasia Bondar.

It is noted that the report of Ukraine on the state of the element "Culture of cooking Ukrainian borsch" was highly appreciated.

In addition, efforts made by Ukraine to protect the element were noted, in particular by strengthening cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations, raising public awareness of the living heritage, developing methodological materials, integrating the element into education and documenting the varieties of its manifestation in several regions.

"Despite the circumstances related to the war on the territory of Ukraine, this element united Ukrainians, in particular internally displaced persons, the Ukrainian diaspora and those temporarily displaced abroad," the message says.