Strike on the Lavra: a tragedy that everyone is using for their own purposes

War has reached the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: UOJ

On June 15, 2026, an event occurred that cannot be perceived as merely another episode of a great war: as a result of a nighttime attack on Kyiv, the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was damaged. Yes, over more than four years of war, hundreds of churches have already been destroyed, but now the center of Orthodoxy in Rus has come under attack. This is tragic. This is symbolic. But what exactly does this symbol speak of? And what conclusions must we draw?

What struck it: a "Geran," a Patriot, or debris?

The SBU claims that the Dormition Cathedral was struck by a Russian "Geran-2" drone. The drone strike was also announced by Volodymyr Zelensky.

The head of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, Maksym Ostapenko, reported two strikes. He claimed that the drones approached "along a clear, identifiable trajectory," and that the strike on the Dormition Cathedral was not accidental.

The Russian version is entirely different: it is alleged that the Dormition Cathedral was hit by a malfunctioning Patriot air defense missile.

To some extent, the situation may be clarified by video footage from the roof of the Dormition Cathedral filmed by Member of Parliament Mykola Tishchenko. The footage shows that the copper roofing was almost entirely destroyed, but the metal structures and beams supporting it remained intact. Several dozen bricks were damaged at the point of impact, but there is no serious structural damage to the masonry. This is notable given that the warhead of the "Geran-2" carries 90 kg of explosives.

The most plausible version was put forward by political analyst Kostiantyn Bondarenko. According to his military sources, there was a single UAV, which was shot down in the sky above the Lavra: the drone's engine fell near the Refectory Church, some fragments landed on the Dormition Cathedral, and a significant portion of the debris fell onto the territory of the neighboring "Arsenal."

This explains why the roof of the Dormition Cathedral shows almost none of the damage characteristic of a direct "Geran-2" strike. There have been cases in Ukraine where several floors of a building collapsed after such a UAV made a direct hit.

There is yet another strange detail in this story. The head of the OCU, Serhiy Dumenko, stated that a certain monk from the Theodosius Monastery "happened to be on the bell tower filming at that time." This immediately raises several questions:

• What was a monk doing on the bell tower at 1:30 in the morning?
• What could he have been filming at that hour?
• How did a man end up at the Theodosius Monastery at night, given that it is a women's monastery?
• How did he have Epiphaniy Dumenko's phone number? Or does every monk in the OCU have a direct line to the Primate?

It seems that simple answers are not to be expected.

Will a round sum be carved up at the Dormition Cathedral?

Less than a day had passed since the strike on the Lavra, workers were still clearing the debris, when the director of the Lavra reserve, Maksym Ostapenko, already named the sum required for restoration — more than 500 million hryvnias.

Who carried out the calculations and how they could have been done in such an incredibly short time remains unknown. But here is what is interesting.

As already noted, the Dormition Cathedral suffered visually minor damage. The interior remained intact; only 80% of the roofing, consisting of copper sheets, was destroyed. According to expert estimates, restoring the entire roof with an area of 800 sq. m. would cost up to $300,000, including labor. In addition to the roof, there will certainly be other work carried out that is not obvious to non-specialists. But 500 million hryvnias amounts to more than $11.1 million — where could that be spent? Moreover, Ostapenko immediately warned that the sum would most likely be increased further.

It is worth recalling here that the construction of the entire cathedral in 1999–2000 cost 69 million hryvnias, equivalent to approximately $12.5–13 million.

An account has now been opened and Ukrainians are being invited to donate money for the restoration of the Dormition Cathedral. But who will oversee the expenditures? Are such enormous sums truly needed for a new roof, or will they be channeled toward other purposes? These questions hang in the air.

Grief for export

After the strike, President Zelensky came to the Lavra and called what had happened "barbarism" and "an open attack on the Christian community." All of this is true — but how then should one describe the destruction by Ukrainian authorities of the Tithes Monastery in Kyiv, the Volodymyr Church in Lviv, and the Transfiguration Church in Ivano-Frankivsk? Was that also "barbarism" and "an open attack on the Christian community"? Or is that "different"?

The Dormition Cathedral is a sacred shrine. But it is not holy because it is listed by UNESCO and recognized as an architectural monument. It is holy because it is a church: prayer resounds here, and the Bloodless Sacrifice is offered to God at the Liturgy. All of this also took place in those churches that were destroyed by the authorities themselves. And barbarism does not become something else merely because it was committed by one's own.

The picture that emerges is telling. The Ukrainian authorities demolish their own churches without a shadow of remorse — but the moment the Dormition Cathedral was damaged in a Russian attack, the wringing of hands before cameras began immediately. And that hand-wringing proved remarkably effective. Zelensky showed Trump a photo of the burning cathedral at the G7 summit and apparently secured political concessions. Ostapenko named a sum that would suffice to build a second Dormition Cathedral — and it appears he received it. And the OCU and other adversaries of the UOC gained the long-awaited pretext to intensify pressure on the Church.

The strike on the Lavra as a pretext for pressure on the UOC

Instead of bowing their heads before the burning shrine, the OCU and government officials used the tragedy as a convenient pretext to pressure the UOC.

On June 15, the SSEC published a statement addressed to "the hierarchy, clergy, monks, and laity" of the UOC. The agency declared that the UOC must "leave the Moscow Patriarchate, which has long justified evil, the killing of children, and blasphemy." The fact that the UOC has long been independent of the ROC does not concern the officials.

Serhiy Dumenko, commenting on the strike against the Lavra, also called on UOC faithful to "unite." From his lips came the same false narratives — that UOC believers merely "disguise themselves" as a Ukrainian Church, while in reality submitting to the Moscow Patriarchate and carrying out the instructions of the "bloody Patriarch Kirill."

The OCU's "abbot" of the Lavra, Avraamy Lotysh, after the shelling called on the monastery's brotherhood to "come to their senses" and "return" to the OCU. How one can return to a place where the Lavra's brotherhood has never been, Lotysh did not explain.

Thus, the enemies of the UOC turned the strike on the Lavra into a strike against the Church.

During the war, hundreds of UOC churches have already been destroyed or damaged, yet not a single word of sympathy or support for the UOC has been heard from the Ukrainian authorities. Only reproaches and accusations. And utterly absurd, from a logical standpoint, demands: you must leave the ROC (which you have already left) and join the schismatics because Russia is destroying your churches.

Moscow speaks

We have already presented the version of the Russian authorities regarding the strike on the Lavra. But what of the ROC?

Officially it remains silent, but several of its prominent figures have made statements.

The vicar of the Moscow Patriarch, Archbishop Savva Tutunov, published a text in his Telegram channel stating that the strike on the Lavra is the fault of "a people who voluntarily renounced the Russian name and the Orthodox faith," and that the fire on the roof of the Dormition Cathedral is the same kind of fire as in the Odessa House of Trade Unions, and that it "will burn Ukraine as retribution for cruelty, indifference, cowardice, and betrayal."

Other statements also came from the ROC. On June 16, Patriarch Kirill's adviser, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, said that the ROC receives the damage to the Dormition Cathedral "with pain and prayer for the coming of peace" and considers the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra a shared shrine of Orthodox Christians in Russia and Ukraine. And on June 18, the deputy head of the ROC's Synodal Department, Vakhtang Kipshidze, stated that the strike on the Lavra should be understood "in the context of everything happening" in the church life of Ukraine: "Therefore, grieving over the damage done to this church — which, incidentally, is a modern construction and not a historical church — while not knowing the circumstances under which this occurred, we must understand: everything that is now happening at the Lavra is, in effect, a schism orchestrated by the state and by forces external to Ukraine."

What did the UOC say?

On June 15, the UOC issued an official statement. The head of the UOC's Synodal Information and Education Department, Metropolitan Klyment, declared that the UOC "resolutely condemns Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and the destruction of shrines [...] the wounds that the Dormition Cathedral suffered this night are a reflection of the profound tragedy of the entire Ukrainian people [...] The tragedy at the Lavra urges all Christians to intensify their prayers for an immediate end to the madness of a war for which there is no justification."

The abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavlo, also spoke out. He called the destruction of the Dormition Cathedral a great sorrow for the entire fullness of the Orthodox Church and a spiritual catastrophe.

It should be noted separately that the strike on the Lavra provoked not only attacks on the UOC, but also a whole wave of accusations directed at Metropolitan Onufriy, who made no statements on the matter. The logic is predictable: silence means fear, failure to condemn means he has "sold out to Moscow."

Here it must be recalled that Metropolitan Onufriy makes statements extremely rarely. He is silent not only regarding the strike on the Lavra, but also regarding the persecutions, the seizure of churches, and other important issues. Does this mean that he supports and "does not condemn" all of this? Certainly not. His Beatitude, unlike the leaders of other confessions, simply prefers to speak exclusively on spiritual matters, and does so in his homilies.

Conclusion

We believe that everything in the world happens according to the Providence of God. It does not matter so much exactly how the Dormition Cathedral came to be damaged. This is a sign given to all of us from above. It is a warning, a signal. But a signal about what? What does Heaven wish to say by this?

And here begins the most tragic part. In 2022, one Orthodox country launched an aggressive war against another Orthodox country. In 2026, that war reached the very cradle of Orthodoxy in Rus. The Lavra is a place of prayer, of the Liturgy. A place of the ascetic labors of the Venerable Anthony and Theodosius. The resting place of the relics of the Pechersk saints. And now the main church of the Lavra is in flames. Is this not a call from above: stop, repent, cease the killing!

But no one heeds this call. Russia sends its drones over the Lavra; Ukraine drives the monks out of it. The strike on the Dormition Cathedral is being used by everyone for their own public relations campaign: some to persuade Trump, others to absorb budget funds, others to justify a "holy war," still others to pressure the UOC, and yet others to persecute Metropolitan Onufriy.

And few speak of repentance. Of the fact that if we do not come to our senses, the consequences may be even more terrible than everything that has come before.

There is a passage in the Gospel that is perfectly suited to the present case: "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Lk. 13:1–5).

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