Using high-tech laser gear, UN-backed team scans Ukraine historical sites to preserve them amid war

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Under the plaintive painted eyes of the holy, a volunteer team of two United Nations-backed engineers watched as a whirling laser took a million measurements a second inside Kyiv's All Saints Church.  

The laser swept quickly across the church, part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, while taking a series of incredibly high-resolution photographs. 

Those images will be stitched together with navigational data to create a perfect three-dimensional rendering of the holy site, part of a project to protect and preserve historic places across Ukraine now in as much in danger as its people amid Russia's war on the country.  

“It’s a critical moment," said Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, who oversees Ukraine for UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. "If it’s not protected now, we really risk that this heritage is lost forever.”