The roof of a cathedral in a 1,000-year-old monastery in Kyiv was damaged by a Russian attack, authorities said, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling it a crime against Christian heritage.
“Due to the Russian strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Dormition Cathedral—a church whose history dates back to the 11th century—was burning,” Zelenskyy said in a June 15 post on X.
“And this is, as of today, one of the largest Russian crimes against Christian culture,” he said, adding that emergency services had extinguished the fire on the cathedral’s roof.
“This is an attack on our history,” the Ukrainian president said later while visiting the damaged building.
“Of course everything will be restored.”
Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the attack, calling it in an X post “another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity.”
The attack on the Lavra and other targets across Ukraine prompted condemnation from European leaders, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said that G7 leaders meeting in Evian, France, will discuss increasing pressure on Russia, “bring Putin to the negotiating table, and end this senseless killing.”
“Europe wants peace,” she wrote on X.
“Nobody more than the Ukrainian people. Russia, on the other hand, showed again its sole interest in violence and destruction.”
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was founded in 1051.
The monastery’s complex is composed of more than 100 buildings, including several churches, chapels, and museums.
The Dormition Cathedral, whose history also dates back to the 11th century, served as a necropolis for Kyiv’s medieval princes. It was badly damaged during World War II.
Moscow Denies Striking Lavra
Moscow has denied striking the monastery, saying it had been damaged by a U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile, which is used by Ukraine in its air defense systems.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine and the West of concocting “another falsification” and “a crude fake.”
Zelenskyy said during a visit to the Lavra that it had been struck by a Russian drone.
Overnight, Russia launched more than 60 missiles at Kyiv, out of a total of 70 missiles fired at Ukraine along with 611 drones, Zelenskyy said.
He said Russia struck regions across the country, including Dnipro, Donetsk, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia.
According to Ukrainian authorities, five people died and 34 were injured in overnight strikes on the capital.
In Kharkiv, four emergency service rescuers and a municipal official were killed, and at least five other people were injured. Three people, including a child, were injured in the northeastern city of Sumy.
Strikes Against Russia
Meanwhile, the regional governor of Tula, Russia, said that three people were killed and another three, including a 1-year-old, were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the city of Tula, south of Moscow.
The Tula region is home to several industrial facilities and has been a frequent target of Ukrainian forces.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians.
The governor of Crimea, Vladimir Saldo, also said that Ukraine damaged two bridges connecting the peninsula with the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region in a drone attack overnight, with traffic being suspended.
Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has faced a fuel supply crisis since Ukrainian attacks intensified in the area.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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