Russian Strikes Damage Kyiv’s Lavra and Mystetskyi Arsenal
Russia’s latest missile and drone attacks on Ukraine have damaged some of Kyiv’s most closely watched cultural sites, including the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the neighboring Mystetskyi Arsenal, an 18th-century complex now used as a contemporary art center.
The most alarming damage was reported at the Dormition Cathedral, where Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said the roof was on fire during shelling on the night of June 15. UNESCO later said there may be “significant damage” to the cathedral’s exterior and interior, as well as to nearby historic structures, including elements of the Lavra’s fortification complex and Ivan Kushnik Tower.
Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, director general of the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex, said the roof of the left wing of the Old Arsenal was seriously affected after a Shahed drone struck the tower and exploded on the roof. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who visited both sites on Monday, said two Russian drones deliberately targeted the area where the Lavra and the Arsenal are located.
Zelensky said 35 people were injured in Kyiv, 53 were wounded across Ukraine, and 11 people were killed in the attack. In an earlier post, he described the strikes as “Russian barbarism” and “an attack on the Christian community and on the cultural heritage of humanity.”
Russia denied hitting the Lavra. Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said reports of damage there were “fakes” and claimed, citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence, that the site had been struck by an American Patriot air defense missile supplied to Ukraine.
The Dormition Cathedral has been destroyed before: in 1941, it was almost completely ruined as Nazi forces retreated from Kyiv. The renewed damage underscores how Ukraine’s monuments, museums, and religious sites remain exposed as the war grinds on, with cultural loss now unfolding alongside the human toll.
Ukraine’s culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, also reported damage to the cathedral’s altar and to other cultural sites in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro. She said the largest and oldest costume collection in Ukraine was destroyed at the Dovzhenko Film Studio, while the Kharkiv Art Museum was hit on Sunday, though its most significant works had been evacuated in 2022.
