On the collapsed cornice of St. Sophia of Kyiv
Collapsed plaster and intact windows of St. Sophia of Kyiv. Photo: Tochytskyi’s Facebook
The minister strongly condemned the attack and emphasized that Ukraine would report it at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
The same day, statements of outrage were issued by the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. Yelenskyi’s office clarified that “the blast wave damaged a plaster cornice” located beneath the church roof. Without a doubt, the missiles and drones with which Russia bombards Ukrainian cities night after night are a crime. But some of our officials’ statements inevitably raise questions. Why?
In March, a cross fell from the Church of All Saints in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. After the recent dismissal of Ostapenko, the Ministry of Culture admitted that 21 structures in the Lavra reserve are in emergency condition. Judging by the appalling state of the Church of All Saints, it was likely among them. Yet immediately after the cross fell, officials claimed that the cause wasn’t mismanagement, but vague “vibrations” from Russian shelling.
Could we be seeing a similar situation here?
In January 2022, a cross also collapsed from St. Sophia Cathedral. At the time, experts inspecting the church stated that the roof was in critical condition. A repair plan was approved through 2028, but funding has yet to be allocated.
And further questions arise.
Following the night attack, Kyiv authorities did not report any missile interceptions or impacts in the vicinity of St. Sophia. Mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned incidents in the Dniprovskyi, Obolonskyi, Podilskyi, Darnytskyi, and Shevchenkivskyi districts. But not a word about the city center.
Everyone knows that explosions usually shatter windows first. There are several windows right next to the collapsed cornice section – not one of them was damaged.
Let us stress once again: we unequivocally condemn the attacks on peaceful cities. But we also do not condone attempts to use the situation as cover to shift blame onto the enemy for potential failures in one’s own responsibilities.
Of course, it’s possible that vibrations reaching from Obolon or Troieshchyna were somehow catastrophic for the Sophia cornice. But let’s be honest – the chances seem slim.
Read also
Advocatus diaboli: when falsehood becomes a virtue
Listening to the rhetoric of Shevchuk and his UCCRO colleagues, one cannot help but think of the famous film starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves – the one in which Reeves’s character discovers that he has been working as an attorney for the devil.
Authorities “open” the Far Caves – whatever they do, nothing works for them
The authorities and the OCU are straining every nerve to make everything look properly “churchlike” – every bit as respectable as under the “Moscow priests.” Yet all they ever produce is a parody with a distinctly Bolshevik stench.
Athonite monks at Dumenko’s Lavra “service”
OCU benefactors paid for the visit of a magnificent Byzantine choir led by the Archon Protopsaltis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
When building a church is banned – is that “freedom of faith”?
In Nychehivka, the authorities unlawfully halted construction of a UOC church on private land.
Mobilizing UOC clergy: Are the authorities simply purging “Moscow priests”?
UOC clerics – unlike those of the OCU, UGCC, Jews, Muslims, and pagans – are granted no exemptions.
Will those who praised the Nazis be included in Ukraine's Pantheon of Heroes?
It may prove difficult to argue that people who sent greetings to Hitler and praised the Nazi army do not fall under Ukraine’s laws condemning Nazism.