Russian attacks on Kyiv – famous cave monastery burns

Ukraine war

Russian attacks on Kyiv – famous cave monastery burns

The Russian army is firing rockets again at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. A main shrine of the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox churches, which is a World Heritage Site, is also damaged.

The main church of the World Heritage-listed Cave Monastery in Kiev has also caught fire during a new wave of Russian air strikes on Ukraine. “According to operational information, there is serious damage on the site of the Cave Monastery,” wrote the military governor of the city of three million, Tymur Tkachenko, on Telegram. According to Ukrainian authorities, there were at least nine dead and dozens injured across the country. According to media reports, initial findings indicate that the Russian attackers used more than 50 missiles and around 500 drones.

Images of the damage to the centuries-old cave monastery in Kiev quickly made the rounds on social networks – although it remained unclear whether the world-famous pilgrimage site caught fire due to direct impacts from Russian missiles or from falling debris after the use of anti-aircraft fire. Flames leaped from the roof beneath the gilded domes of the Assumption Cathedral.

The monastery complex on the hills on the Dnipro River is under the protection of the UN cultural organization Unesco and has been a world cultural heritage site since 1990. Its origins date back to the 11th century. The centerpiece is the cathedral, which was destroyed in the Second World War in 1941 and was only rebuilt at the end of the 1990s.

In the lower part of the monastery grounds with several museums is the cave system that was created in the Middle Ages and contains the mummified remains of clergy. This part continues to be used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which saw itself as part of the Moscow Patriarchate until the Russian invasion in 2022, but then broke away from Moscow.

Almost two dozen explosions – presumably triggered by anti-aircraft defenses – were heard in the center of Kiev during the night, as a correspondent for the German Press Agency reported. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, there were impacts in three parts of the city and at least 23 people were injured. Accordingly, there were also widespread power outages and fires. Around 30 vehicles are said to have burst into flames. Military Governor Tkachenko spoke of more than 40 attacks in the capital. There have been four deaths so far, he wrote early in the morning.

Heavy shelling was also reported in other Ukrainian regions. In Kharkiv alone, five rescue workers were killed and four other people were injured as a result of the air strikes, the news portal “The Kyiv Independent” reported, citing Governor Oleh Synjehubov. It was said that at least one person was injured in Dnipro. None of this information could initially be independently verified.