A historic cathedral was damaged in Kyiv on Monday during a major Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to escalate.
Photos and videos show the Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, on fire during the Russian attack. The blaze caused extensive damage to the cathedral’s roof and was eventually extinguished.
Ukrainian officials said the historic cathedral was hit by Russian drones while Moscow denied the charge, claiming that it was hit by a US-made Patriot missile interceptor fired by Ukrainian forces.
The Monastery of the Caves, a nearly 1,000-year-old complex, has been a source of controversy throughout the war as the Ukrainian government evicted the clergy who previously lived there and were members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which has historic links to Russia but severed ties with the Moscow Patriarchate following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Since the ouster of UOC priests and nuns, part of a wider government crackdown on the UOC, clergy of the Ukrainian-state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) now reside at the complex.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia’s attacks on Monday, which hit other major cities in Ukraine, killed 11 Ukrainian civilians, including five in Kyiv. In Russia, Ukrainian drones killed at least three civilians in the western city of Tula.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strikes on Ukraine targeted military industrial sites and said they were a response to the increasing civilian casualties caused by Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian territories. Moscow has launched several major bombardments that it said were in response to a May 22 Ukrainian drone attack that hit a college in Starobelsk in the Luhansk Oblast and killed 21 students.
