The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, on Monday strongly condemned an overnight missile strike on a revered religious landmark and UN-listed World Heritage site in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral, inside the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastic complex, caught fire during the attack, according to Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, who described it as a Russian crime against humanity.
Russia denied targeting the complex.
Bartholomew spoke on the phone after the attack with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Epiphanius, condemning the Russian “act of barbarity and disrespect,” the Patriarchate said.
“No rational human being and no argument can excuse this barbaric, catastrophic attack on a sacred site of pilgrimage,” the statement said. It expressed “the deepest sorrow and disappointment” at the attack.
