Lavra's Dormition Cathedral and the money

Maksym Ostapenko in front of the Dormition Cathedral. Photo: Ministry of Culture Facebook page

Barely twenty-four hours after the strike on the Dormition Cathedral, the head of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Preserve, Maksym Ostapenko, announced the amount allegedly required to restore it. According to him, the cost exceeds UAH 500 million – more than $11.1 million at today’s exchange rate. Moreover, he described this as only preliminary information, implying that the final bill will be even higher.

He did not explain who had calculated the figure or why it was made public with such remarkable haste.

A fundraising account has already been opened, and Ukrainians are being urged to contribute. Banks, corporations, and even foreign governments have expressed their willingness to participate in the restoration effort.

Yet a number of questions immediately arise.

Judging by footage from the cathedral roof published by MP Mykola Tyshchenko, the building did not appear to suffer catastrophic structural damage. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, the cathedral was struck by a Geran-2 attack drone – a weapon reportedly capable of penetrating up to four floors of a residential building. Yet the visible damage is largely limited to the roofing.

At the impact site, several dozen bricks were knocked out and sections of plaster were damaged, but even the metal framework supporting the copper roof sheets appears to have remained intact.

According to official data, the reconstruction of the Dormition Cathedral in 1999–2000 cost UAH 69 million, equivalent at the time to roughly $12.5–13 million. It bears emphasizing that this covered the construction of the entire cathedral – foundations, walls, domes, windows, and everything else.

Experts estimate that replacing approximately 800 square meters of copper roofing today would cost between $170,000 and $300,000, including labor and materials. There may, of course, be additional restoration work not immediately visible to non-specialists. Nevertheless, these figures are in an entirely different category from the sums now being publicly discussed.

The comparison is difficult to ignore: the construction of the entire cathedral cost around $12.5–13 million, while more than $11.1 million is now being requested merely to restore damage that, at least visually, appears limited. And even that amount is described as only the beginning.

In 2023, the Accounting Chamber audited the Ministry of Culture and reported UAH 4.2 billion in what it called ineffective spending. Around the same time, Ostapenko stated in an interview that preparations for the 1,000th anniversary of the Lavra – due to be celebrated in 2051 – required substantial funding. In his words, the money was needed “right now,” because tomorrow would already be too late.

Without question, the strike on the Dormition Cathedral is a tragedy.

But even at this early stage, the story raises far more questions than answers.

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