From Soviet explosives to Russian drones: The long assault on Kyiv Pechersk Lavra

Russia’s latest missile and drone assault on Kyiv on June 15, 2026, targeted the Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Orthodox Christianity’s oldest monasteries, setting its roof ablaze. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed a Russian Shahed-type drone struck the site, which had previously suffered damage in a January 2026 attack when a blast wave shattered windows and part of the caves. The cathedral’s destruction recalls the Soviet retreat in 1941, when retreating forces rigged explosives and demolished it before German troops advanced. Rebuilt and reconsecrated in 2000, the Lavra remains a symbol of Ukrainian cultural resilience, founded in 1051 by Anthony of Kyiv as a center of prayer and intellectual exchange. Olha Petrenko-Tseunova, a Kyiv-Mohyla Academy lecturer, described the Lavra as a place of ‘inner freedom,’ fostering medieval monastic traditions, Baroque art, and early Ukrainian printing, including the first book in Kyiv in 1616. Petro Mohyla, a 17th-century scholar, established a school there that later became Ukraine’s prestigious Kyiv Mohyla Academy, cementing Kyiv—not Moscow—as the leading intellectual hub of East Slavic Orthodoxy. The attack underscores Russia’s repeated efforts to erase Ukrainian heritage, with the Lavra serving as both a religious and cultural bastion. Metropolitan Epiphanius of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine condemned the strike, calling it an assault on one of the ‘holiest places in the Christian world.’ The destruction has sparked global condemnation, framing the war as not just a military conflict but a deliberate campaign against Ukraine’s identity.