Catholic and Orthodox leaders are expressing shock and outrage after a Russian drone strike heavily damaged a historic monastery complex in Kyiv, Ukraine, with a cathedral set ablaze. Source: Catholic Review.
The Dormition (Assumption) Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, sustained a direct hit amid a wave of June 14-15 attacks launched by Russia across Ukraine that targeted several cultural and residential structures.
The 11th-century monastery is “one of the most holy sites in the Orthodox world,” said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia in a June 14 Facebook post.
The combined barrage of missiles and drones launched by Russia killed at least 11 and wounded 53, according to Ukraine President Voldymyr Zelenskyy. Two children, ages 5 and 6, were injured in Kyiv.
Among the dead were five first responders in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Mr Zelenskyy inspected the damage to the Dormition Cathedral, climbing up with a delegation onto the roof, more than 800 square metres of which had been torched.
According to its website, the Lavra – the name of which, derived from Greek, signifies a monastery of particular importance – is “the first and the most ancient monastery on the territory of contemporary Ukraine.”
In 1941, retreating Red Army forces detonated mines in the cathedral, which was then looted from 1941-1943 by Nazi invaders. Full restoration of the church was completed in 2000.
“The Russian occupiers have once again attacked our capital in an inhumane manner,” lamented Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr in a Facebook post yesterday.
He noted that “‘Orthodox’ Russia is destroying Orthodox shrines.”
Russia has denied attacking the Lavra, although Mr Zelenskyy noted in an official statement that “it has been confirmed that two Russian drones deliberately targeted the part of the city” where both the Lavra and the Mystetskyi Arsenal, a museum and art exhibition space, are situated.
Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine, primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said in a June 15 X post that Russia’s attack on the cathedral was “another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity”.
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Catholic, Orthodox leaders condemn Russian attack on Kyiv cathedral (By Gina Christian, OSV News via Catholic Review)
