Lavra restoration may cost over 500 million UAH and take around two years

He said that a huge amount of urgent repair work had already been carried out. All the exhibits at risk of damage had been dismantled and saved within the first hour after the attack.

Nearly 80% of the Dormition Cathedral roof has been damaged. The firefighters managed to prevent the fire from spreading inside, which would have caused even greater damage as the cathedral houses a 25-metre-high iconostasis — the largest in Ukraine. According to Ostapenko, if it had caught fire, it would have been almost impossible to save.

“We are currently assessing the losses — both direct damage and other forms of damage that we are identifying all over the cathedral. In addition to the Dormition Cathedral and the Kushchnyk Tower, which were the main structures affected, a further 17 structures have been damaged by the explosion. The damage varies in severity, and we are documenting everything. We can already say with certainty that the damage exceeds 500 million UAH. We will continue a comprehensive analysis of all elements for future restoration, and the figure will be revised,” he said.

The Director-General of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra believes the attack on the Lavra was deliberate.

“The Dormition Cathedral, the Kushchnik Tower and the Mytetsky Arsenal were hit directly. In other words, these were not drone fragments; drones were flying along a precise trajectory. There are eyewitness accounts of people who saw these drones heading towards the Dormition Cathedral. I would like to point out that the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra covers an area of 27 hectares; the idea of an accidental strike on the cathedral’s sanctuary is simply implausible,” said Ostapenko.

More about the attack

Overnight on June 15, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 70 missiles and 611 drones of various types. Twenty ballistic missiles and 27 attack drones reached their targets, despite air defence efforts.

Five people were killed in the attack in Kyiv, and at least 30 people were injured. Russian forces targeted the Dormition Cathedral — the main cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra — and the nearby Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex. The Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the Museum of Books and Printing of Ukraine, the National Historical Library of Ukraine, the National Academy of Cultural and Art Management, and the collection storage facility of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine were damaged. All institutions were located on the territory of the Lavra complex.

Russia also attacked the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio, destroying Ukraine’s largest and oldest costume collection. This was the second attack on the film studio in a month.

Ukrkinochronika, one of Ukraine’s oldest documentary film studios, which preserves the country’s cinematic heritage, was also damaged, as were the Ukraine National Palace of Arts, the Kharkiv Art Museum and others.