Zelensky: We are preparing for millennium of symbolic place of our strength

Zelensky at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: OP

On June 28, 2026, during the celebrations on the occasion of Ukraine's Constitution Day at the walls of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the beginning of preparations for the 1000th anniversary of the monastery and signed the corresponding decree.

"I am signing the corresponding decree here and now," said the President.

The head of state called the Lavra "the symbolic place of our strength", "our national identity" and "a bastion of Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe". According to him, "in those times when Moscow did not yet exist, the Lavra was a source of development", where Ukrainian history, education, science, icon painting and book printing were formed.

Zelensky recalled that already in August, on the Dormition feast, the Lavra will mark 975 years since its founding. The millennium, according to him, Ukrainians will celebrate in 25 years – "only one generation will change."

The President called for preparations for this date to begin well in advance. According to him, it is "a long and painstaking process" – the renewal and preservation of dozens of cultural monuments, museum collections and structures of the Lavra. This work, Zelensky emphasized, must be carried out "in unity".

The statement was made in the same speech in which the President announced a law on the "Ukrainian National Pantheon", a new award "the Order of Europe" and the erection of a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa.

As the UOJ reported, Zelensky held the Constitution Day celebrations at the Dormition Cathedral.

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