A massive Russian drone assault 10 June killed up to seven people and injured at least 13 in Kyiv and Odesa, damaging the historic Holy Wisdom Cathedral—St Sophia Cathedral—in what Ukrainian officials say was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv since the war began.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over 315 drones were launched in the five-hour strike.
The cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and spiritual heart of Eastern Christianity, sustained damage to its main apse.
Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia compared the cathedral’s symbolic significance to St Peter’s in Rome and Notre Dame in Paris, calling the attack an assault on Ukraine’s soul.
Church leaders and advocates condemned the strike as part of a wider pattern of destruction.
Over 670 religious sites have been damaged since the invasion began. The Ukrainian Council of Churches urged global action to end what they called “barbarism” and religious persecution in occupied areas.