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That evening, the director of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra reserve Maksym Ostapenko made a bed in the corridor, packed a backpack, a first-aid kit, got dressed, and went to sleep in his shoes: “This has never happened before during the entire war.”
The day before, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had asked to be cautious. They were recording the activity of Russian tactical aviation and the fleet.
At half past one in the morning, an air raid siren sounded, and forty minutes later a “Shahed” crashed into the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. Ostapenko was nearby and heard the explosion. A moment later he received a message — a video of smoke rising above the domes.
It was sent by the vicar of the Assumption Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Avraamiy. He filmed the fire from his window. The priest lives on the territory of the Lavra. During the explosion, the vicar’s house seemed to have been lifted and put back in place.
Архів заповідника «Києво-Печерська Лавра»
Ostapenko grabbed his backpack and ran through the Park of Glory to the reserve. Explosions and gunshots rang out. In five minutes he was there. No one was around, only a guard opened the gate for him.
“I enter the courtyard and see that the domes are crimson, they reflected the flames that were blazing on the roof,” Ostapenko describes the events.
The fire engulfed the roof of the cathedral. They fought the fire for more than five hours. More than 20 calculations of the State Emergency Service were working.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Behind him he heard the voices of the monks of OCU and Bishop Avraamiy. There were five of them. They all ran to the cathedral. Avraamiy called the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko on the way, asking him to send the State Emergency Service.
Without waiting for the firefighters, Ostapenko and the monks began to take out relics from the cathedral — the Gospel, crosses, and vestments.
“We didn’t agree on anything, we started doing it intuitively. There was already smoke in the cathedral, and we were coughing and saving the relics,” recalls Avraamiy.
The items were transferred to the nearby Lavra bell tower. The cathedral was hosting an exhibition called “Christ is Risen!” — icons, engravings, and precious metal products from the 16th–18th centuries about Easter. There was no time to open every display case. Ostapenko ordered them to be broken.
“The most valuable things of the Lavra were there, their loss would be irreparable for Ukrainian culture,” the director explains.
Exhibits from the exhibition "Christ is Risen!", including icons from the 16th–17th centuries, church embroidery, and precious metal products from the 16th–19th centuries. The casket with the relics of the holy protomartyr Archdeacon Stephen remains in the bell tower after the fire. The Vicar of the Assumption Cathedral of the OCU Bishop Avraamiy takes out the church vestments.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The most difficult task was to move the 80-kilogram casket containing the relics of the holy protomartyr Archdeacon Stephen to the bell tower.
"Itʼs very difficult, but no one thought whether they had the strength for it. It was loud, scary. We understood that we were risking our lives. But a Christian always has complete trust in God," says Avraamiy.
The first fire engines arrived together with the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko. He coordinated their work throughout the night.
The Russian "Shahed" hit the roof of the eastern part of the cathedral — this is from the side of the buildings designed by the Ukrainian architect Stepan Kovnir. The Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine and its collection of Scythian gold are located there.
Volodymyr Zelensky on the roof of the Dormition Cathedral. "Shahed" exploded where there is red brick. 80 percent of the roof burned down, and it will take two years to repair it.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The roof of the cathedral is wooden. It is treated with fire-fighting fluid, but the fire jumped from beam to beam. More and more fire engines arrived at the reserve, by three in the morning there were more than twenty of them.
The building was flooded with water to prevent the fire from getting inside and the wooden ceiling from burning down. If this had happened, the seven domes would have collapsed.
"When the fire started to break through the roof, a Lavra Miracle happened — a downpour began, which did not end until the fire was extinguished," says Ostapenko.
Water is pouring from the ceiling. The State Emergency Service inspects the icons in the cathedral after the fire.
The rain prevented the fire from spreading to the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Theodosius. It is five meters from the cathedral, and was painted by the Ukrainian artist Ivan Yizhakevych.
At five in the morning, a second "Shahed" began to approach the Lavra. Rescuers did not hear the hum of its engine because of the noise of the water. On approach, the "Shahed" caught on a cross on one of the towers surrounding the Lavra — the Ivan Kushnyk Tower — and bounced off into the building opposite — the "Mystetsky Arsenal".
After the explosion, a fire broke out there.
The director of the reserve Maksym Ostapenko shows the cross that the second "Shahed" caught on to: "What is this, if not a miracle? It saved the life of the State Emergency Service workers."
Ganna Mamonova / "Babel"
At six in the morning, the bells of the carillon of the Feodosiiv Monastery played the national anthem of Ukraine. It was a recording that was played during the day, but after the night we had experienced, it was an extremely emotional moment. Around seven in the morning, the fire in the cathedral was extinguished.
"We managed to prevent a fire inside the cathedral. There is a 25-meter iconostasis soaked in drying oil, it would have caught fire like a candle," says Ostapenko.
At seven in the morning, the missile threat was over. A few hours later, President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and dozens of officials, deputies, and representatives of diplomatic missions arrived at the Lavra. They climbed onto the burned roof. Zelensky instructed the government to find money for repairs.
“What would you say to Vladimir Putin after the attack?” the journalists stopped the president.
“Oh, we will say." Zelensky replied.
The entire next day, the reserve staff scooped up the water with buckets. Streams of water, black with soot, flowed down the walls painted with biblical scenes and the iconostasis. Ostapenko walked around the cathedral with wet feet and thought that they had survived the fire. But what to do with the flood?
In the afternoon, a small group of parishioners of the UOC MP gathered under the walls of the Lavra — they said that this was payback for the fact that they, the truly correct church, were expelled from the Lavra.
“No one said that it was a Russian drone,” says the reserve’s leading scientific associate Olha Kovalevska.
The head of the UOC MP, Metropolitan Onufriy, did not publish an appeal due to the attack on the Lavra. Journalists asked the director of the reserve: maybe Onufriy called him? Ostapenko replied: “Forget the name of this citizen with a Russian passport.”
The only one who spoke from the UOC MP was the former abbot of the Lavra monastery Pavlo (Lebid). He said that the reserve would decline without their church, because “the Lord is not insulted”. He remained silent about the fact that Russia started the war and its drone hit the cathedral. 140 monks of the UOC MP live in cells on the territory of the reserve, only a few of them came to help.
That day, it was not only the UOC MP that said that the trouble with the cathedral happened because “we didn’t pray enough”. The priest of OCU, Archbishop of Zhytomyr and Polissia Volodymyr, wrote on Facebook:
“Olya Polyakova just performed with singing in a crown of thorns against the background of the cross, and here we have God’s Permission… remember the dancing, singing, and culinary shows during the Christmas holidays in churches.”
The post of Archbishop Volodymyr of Zhytomyr and Polissia.
Bishop Avraamiy, with whom Babel spoke, asked to disregard these words — "sorry, but let everyone be responsible for themselves. I am the vicar in the Lavra, and I know the situation better than others". After that, Archbishop Volodymyr deleted the post from Facebook.
UNESCO said it would support Ukraine in assessing the damage to the Lavra “within its mandate”. The statement made no mention that a Russian drone had struck.
“The organization, which is supposed to protect cultural heritage, is not even able to say who it is protecting it from,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi responded.
How the Dormition Cathedral appeared and how many times it was rebuilt
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery began with a single cave — in 1051, the monk Anthony settled in the dugout. In 1089, the monks built the Dormition Cathedral.
Less than ten years later (in 1096), the cathedral was plundered and set on fire by the Polovtsians led by Khan Bonyak.
70 years later (1169), the cathedral was plundered by the army of Prince Andriy Boholyubsky, who had once reigned in Kyiv, but lost power and went to war against the city.
In 1230, an earthquake occurred in Kyiv and the stone walls of the temple collapsed.
In 1240, the cathedral was set on fire by the Mongol-Tatar horde led by Khan Batyi.
In 1482, the Crimean Khan Mengli-Girey burned Kyiv and its cathedral at the request of the Moscow Prince Ivan III.
In 1718, the Dormition Cathedral burned down because a candle fell in the governorʼs cell and the wind spread the fire. Although there is an urban legend that the Lavra was set on fire by Russians disguised as monks.
In November 1941, the cathedral was blown up. During Soviet times, it was believed that the Germans did it, but during the years of independence, historians found evidence that a Red Army sabotage group was behind the explosion. There is no definitive version, as the archives have not survived.
The new cathedral building was consecrated in 2000. UAH 69 million ($12-13 million) were spent on the construction and 8.5 kg of gold was used to cover the domes.
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For a week after the fire, rescuers and reserve staff covered the cathedral with a temporary roof. They filled the slats and laid a film on top. The head Ostapenko sometimes climbed up and helped.
His greatest pain was that the fire destroyed the roof covering from Mazepa-era, where a small piece of the cathedral was preserved after the explosion in 1941.
“Itʼs an irreparable loss,” he says.
All that remained of the cathedral after the explosion in 1941. The dome on the right is the site of the drone explosion. The dome on the left is where the Mazepa-era ceiling, which survived after 1941, burned down. The red brick at the site of the explosion is like a wound.
Wikimedia; lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
Ostapenko learned from law enforcement officers that Russian drones entered the Lavra along a clear trajectory — “there are witnesses to how they flew”. The territory of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra is 26 hectares of land, where there are more than 150 buildings.
“I will never believe that this was an accidental blow, and even to the weakest spot — the roof, which catches fire easily,” says the director.
If the drone had crashed into a wall or foundation, there would have been no fire, and the stone would have survived. At the site of the “Shahed” explosion, instead of white plaster, there is cracked red brick. The stained glass windows are broken, and gold leaf has peeled off the domes in some places. The decorative stucco is covered in soot. The roof of the cathedral is 80% destroyed.
“The renovation will take two years, and it will require millions of hryvnias, which we need to find,” says Ostapenko.
The reserve opened an account for donations, but only UAH 4.4 million were donated.
A temporary roof is being built over the cathedral. The work was completed on June 23.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The buildingʼs main facade, the western one, which everyone sees when they enter the reserve, was not affected by the fire. Its decorative stucco, covered in gilding, shines in the sun.
“During the construction of the temple in the late nineties, the stucco molding was restored according to photographs from the 19th century. The lush stucco molding is typical of the Baroque, but without gilding. Most likely, this is an innovation of the UOC MP,” says an employee of the reserve Kovalevska.
The cathedral was built from 1998 to 2000 by the “Ukrrestavratsiya” corporation according to the project of architect Oleh Hrauzhys. The work was commissioned by the state, and the UOC MP actively participated in the process, because it believed that everything in the Lavra belonged to it.
The cathedralʼs front part was not damaged.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
To be fair, Kovalevska notes that with the gilding on the Dormition Cathedral, the church always shines — “you enter the courtyard, and it glows”.
She begins the tour for Babel from the side entrance — the part that survived the explosion in 1941 — “these walls are from the time of Hetman Ivan Mazepa”. During the restoration of the cathedral 26 years ago, the most careful work was carried out here to preserve authenticity, “but something requires rethinking”. Kovalevska points to the marble tombstone of Count Petro Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky:
“This Russian field marshal participated in the liquidation of the Cossack autonomy,” she continues.
“Why is his tombstone in the Ukrainian cathedral, which was built during independence?” we clarify.
Marble tombstone for Petro Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky. A tombstone to Prince Kostyantyn Ostrohsky, who was a defender and patron of the Lavra in the 16th century. The monument to Ostrohsky is being restored after the destruction of the cathedral in 1941. The photo shows what it should look like.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
This is how the principle of historicism works, says Kovalevska. The cathedral was restored as it was before its destruction during the Soviet era. In the 1990s, there was no talk in the reserve about rethinking history and post-colonial politics.
“Are you proposing to demolish it now?”
“No, this is a bas-relief by Ukrainian sculptor Ivan Martos. There are only two of his works in Ukraine — this one and the tombstone of Hetman of Ukraine Kyrylo Rozumovsky in Baturyn,” answers Kovalevska.
But, she says, during the tours it is necessary to tell that this person was a Russifier of Ukraine. It is also necessary to explain that the inscriptions in Russian (Church Slavonic) in the temple were restored from the times of the Russian Empire. This language was used by the Orthodox Church at that time.
We pass into the central hall (nave). Pieces of charred wood and bricks fall on our heads. There is a hole in the ceiling through which the sky is visible. The acrid smell of burning corrodes our throats. The cathedral is in semi-darkness — the electrical wiring is damaged.
The ceiling of the cathedral and the holes through which the sky shines through after the fire.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
“The cathedral looks better now than in the first days after the fire,” says Kovalevska.
Then the water stood on the floor, flowing in black streams down the walls and the iconostasis. Now the floor is dry. But the ash creaks underfoot. We recall that it resembles a buzzard. Thatʼs what slag from burnt coal is called in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“I grew up in Donetsk, where I defended the first PhD thesis in the history of Ukraine about Ivan Mazepa,” says Kovalevska.
“And how could be saying that Donetsk belongs to Russia [after that],” we reply.
The cathedral has no electricity, alarm system, or ventilation shafts. The doors are not closed to ventilate the smell of burning and dry the room.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The part of the cathedral where the iconostasis stands, a 25-meter-high five-tiered linden structure, was flooded the most. It is important to dry it out so that the wood does not deteriorate, says Kovalevska, "otherwise we will lose it".
The iconostasis cannot be disassembled and dried. It is assembled from many parts, and only its makers know how they are fastened. That was 26 years ago. For two years, 72 woodcarvers worked on it, reproducing a copy of the 18th-century Baroque iconostasis, which was once donated to the cathedral by Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky and his wife Anastasia.
"During the fire, I thought — God forbid — the iconostasis would burn down. Now Iʼm worried that it wonʼt be damaged by water," says the researcher.
The Baroque iconostasis is an exact copy of what it was in the 18th century. It is dried with fans. Humidity sensors are placed throughout the iconostasis and the cathedral.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
Large fans blow cold air around the iconostasis. There are humidity sensors everywhere, but they donʼt bring any good news yet.
The walls of the cathedral are also wet. If they donʼt dry out over the summer, and there is no heating in the winter due to blackouts, the walls could get moldy, and the plaster with the paintings will start to fall off.
An 11th-century mosaic, a piece of which has survived on the floor to this day, was soaked in water for over a day.
On the left is a piece of mosaic that was on the floor of the cathedral during the time of Kyivan Rus, on the right is from the 19th century. The paintings are stained with smoke.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The first floor of the cathedral was painted by artists from two restoration and scientific institutions. Kovalevska has no comments on their work, except for the image of Ivan Mazepa.
“This is absolutely terrible. It depicts not Ivan Mazepa, but the great Lithuanian hetman Casimir Jan Sapieha.”
According to Kovalska, the mistake arose due to a coincidence. The painting was made in the early 2000s. At that time, researchers were looking for an authentic portrait of Mazepa, and people began to read the books of historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky.
In his "Illustrated History of Ukraine" under one of the images it is written: "Portrait of Mazepa in the Royal Swedish Gripsholm Gallery". A copy of it, printed on canvas, appeared in the Hetmanate Museum. It was a gift from the Swedish side. The portrait quickly gained popularity — "no one could have thought that Hrushevsky had made a mistake".
Olha Kovalevska points to the portrait of Mazepa: "This is absolutely terrible." The mural near the central entrance depicts the patrons of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. In the middle, in the top row, is Bohdan Khmelnytsky, to his right is an "incorrect" portrait of Mazepa.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
“Someone photoshopped a short hat onto Sapega’s image, published it on the Internet, and this ʼmasterpieceʼ was used by the artists who painted the cathedral,” says Kovalevska.
How badly was Lavra damaged?
The total amount of losses exceeds UAH 500 million.
In addition to the cathedral and the Kushnyk Tower, windows were broken in 17 buildings in the reserve: the Treasury of the National Museum of Ukrainian History and Culture, the Museum of Books and Printing, the National Historical Library, the storage facility of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine, etc.
During the four years of the Great War, the reserve was damaged twice. The first time was in January 2024 (this was the first time since World War II that the monastery was damaged by military action).
Before the Great War, UNESCO had threatened several times to remove the Lavra from the World Heritage List because the UOC MP was building up the reserve, destroying ancient buildings. Later, the organization turned a blind eye to this.
The second floor of the cathedral was painted by masters of the Lavra icon-painting workshop at the request of the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The icon painters worked according to the approved project, but in 2021, Pavlo (Lebid) persuaded them to take an adventure.
If you go up the stairs and turn right, you will find a portrait gallery. It depicts church figures from different eras — the second floor behind the choirs. On one of the walls, a full-length portrait of Pavlo himself is depicted, next to him is the head of the UOC MP Onufriy and the late Metropolitan Volodymyr.
“This image is not in the cathedral’s painting project and cannot be. We have discussed this more than once at the academic council,” says Kovalevska.
The image of Pavlo, Volodymyr, and Onufriy is located on the second floor behind the choirs. The second floor was painted by icon painters of the UOC MP. The mural depicts one of the Ecumenical Councils.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
The reserve found out that the mural appeared in March-April 2021 — during the coronavirus pandemic, when everyone was working remotely. Pavlo personally monitored the painting. He chose a wall not in a dark corner, but where sunlight falls on the image from two sides.
During the fire, the painting remained undamaged. It wasn’t even covered in soot. It was painted with oil paints and shines from the inside. In this part of the cathedral, which was painted at the request of the UOC MP, “everything is too bright and resembles a Russian lubok”, says Kovalevska.
“Why wasnʼt the portrait painted over?”
“Here you can apply illegal painting and not be held accountable for it, but to remove the violation, you need a bunch of permits,” he answers.
Decoration of the cathedral. The Royal Gates of the Iconostasis.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»
Finally, we ask why the fire shook everyone up. The cathedral is 26 years old, itʼs a new building.
“Even though there are only foundations from the 11th century, only one bathhouse from Mazepa’s time, this is the Dormition Cathedral, a symbol of Kyiv and Ukraine. It is a UNESCO heritage site,” says Kovalevska,
Near the cathedral we meet the head Ostapenko. He complains that he has not slept for the second week. One of his latest ideas is to cast the Order of Herostratus from the copper that fell from the cathedral during the fire and present it to Putin. The order is to be made in the form of a mask — to repeat one of the European frescoes in which the devil looks like Putin.
The ceiling of the cathedral and the holes through which the sky shines through after the fire.
lryna Vlasiuk / «Бабель»