Reserve announces cost of restoring Dormition Cathedral

The Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Ukrinform

The Director General of the National Reserve "Kyiv Pechersk Lavra" Maksym Ostapenko reported that the main work to eliminate the fire that broke out as a result of the attack has already been completed. Currently, State Emergency Service employees are engaged in dismantling dangerous structures and preparing the roof for preservation, reports Ukrinform.

"We are finishing the preparation of damage data, but it is obvious that the amount exceeds 500 million hryvnias," Ostapenko stated. "This is only initial information as of today, since additional data continues to come in."

The head of the Reserve emphasized that specialists consider the primary task to be assessing the condition of the cathedral's vaults, which were exposed to critically high temperatures. According to him, there was a real threat of a large-scale catastrophe inside the building.

"There was a risk of the vault collapsing inside the cathedral, and then the iconostasis and many other things could have caught fire," the director general explained. "It would have been very difficult to stop the fire, and we would have lost enormous works of art located inside the shrine."

He added that thanks to the work of more than 20 pieces of equipment, the destruction of the cathedral was avoided, although the fire had already begun to penetrate inside in two places.

Assessing the prospects for restoring the cathedral, the head of the Reserve expressed cautious optimism regarding the timeline of the work. "I think that under normal conditions we will be able to restore the Dormition Cathedral within two years. I hope that we will be able to continue using it as the largest shrine of the Lavra," he concluded.

As the UOJ reported, the OCU called the shelling of the Dormition Cathedral retribution for blasphemy at the Lavra.

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