If you just glance at this video,
it kind of looks like
it could have been taken
from a video game.
But what you're actually looking at
is hundreds of millions of points of data
that have been turned into a mesh
and have been overlaid with images
to create a near-perfect digital
replica of this building.
This technology is being used to offer
a whole new
three-dimensional perspective
to the ongoing
destruction of some of Ukraine's
most important historic sites.
To understand why,
it helps to look back
at the very beginning of Russia's
invasion of Ukraine,
back in February.
When Russia began shelling Ukraine,
it became clear almost from the outset
that Moscow had more
than just military targets
in its crosshairs.
Entire residential districts
and critical infrastructure
were being wiped out.
But amongst all the destruction,
reports began to emerge
of another type of target
being shelled over
and over and over.
These were culturally significant sites,
places intertwined
with Ukraine's national identity.
Museums were looted and shelled.
Historic buildings turned to rubble.
Even monuments like this
Holocaust Memorial near Kharkiv
in north eastern Ukraine
have been damaged.
By August 2022,
UN monitoring had identified
more than 170 cultural sites
that had either been damaged or destroyed
since the invasion began
back in February.
Ukraine's Ministry of Culture
puts that number at more like 400 sites.
US President Joe Biden
described these attacks
as an attempt by Russian leader
Vladimir Putin
to try to extinguish Ukrainian culture.
Attacking schools,
nurseries, hospitals, museums.
But as we've seen time and time again
in the war,
the Ukrainians have been creative
in their resistance.
Artworks from museums
were packed and hidden,
monuments sandbagged.
But there was little that could be done
to protect Ukraine's historic buildings
from Russian shells.
At least not physically anyway.
French structural engineer
Emmanuel Durond
is an expert in capturing 3D data.
He went on a 17 day trip across Ukraine
documenting the destruction
of cultural sites.
Durond took with him
this fist-sized laser scanner,
which bounces light off surfaces
to build these detailed,
three-dimensional models
of buildings.
This church on the outskirts of Chernihiv
was one of his first stops.
It had been shelled
and Russian forces
had set up a base inside.
When they withdrew from the area in April,
the church was left in ruins.
So you arrive at the site
and the church surrounded by damage.
I mean burnt vehicles,
trucks, tanks, everything.
And you still find old pieces
of the day-to-day life
like food cans, underwear.
Like it looks like it was just yesterday.
He also scanned this youth
library in Chernihiv,
once home to a museum
for Ukrainian antiquities.
This 19th century
Gothic revival building
withstood shelling in the years
after World War I
and also during World War II.
Within weeks of the Russian invasion,
the historic building
had been blown to pieces.
Not only are these 3D models
raising awareness
of the ongoing destruction
of Ukrainian cultural sites,
they're also preserving the sites
as they were during the war
for future generations.
This type of 3D scene reconstruction
can also be used
in war crimes investigations.
Under international law,
the intentional destruction
of cultural heritage
is considered a war crime.
I spoke with lawyer Daryna Pidhorna
from the Regional Center for Human Rights,
a Ukrainian NGO.
She's been investigating a number
of alleged attacks on cultural sites,
including the shelling of
the Mariupol drama theatre.
She's planning on submitting the evidence
to Ukraine's national prosecutor
and the International Criminal Court.
If we could not stand for our country,
for our language now,
then we could not stand as a people,
as a person,
as individual in the future,
because we will [have] lost everything.
We [will have] lost our origins.
We [will have] lost our roots,
we will have lost our cultural language.
Mostly everything
that could make us individual.