By EUvsDisinfo
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a sacred site that the Kremlin has for decades called its spiritual cradle and a main centre for Orthodoxy in Russia, is now in the crosshairs of Russian weapons. On the night of 15 June 2026, Russia launched a missile and drone strike on Kyiv that caused a massive fire in the Dormition Cathedral of the Lavra. Ukrainian authorities have estimated the damage to the ancient shrine, one of eight UNESCO World Heritage sites, at over 500 million hryvnias (about 10 million euros). Restoration and reconstruction work could take two years.
The strike was not just an attack on Ukrainian cultural heritage. It also destroyed a principal historical narrative of pro-Russian Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) that portrays Moscow as the protector of the Orthodox Church.
The myth of Christianity’s defender, reduced to ashes
Religion occupies a central place in Russian ideology, and the Kremlin uses it as an influence tool in Ukraine. Modern Russia considers Prince Volodymyr’s baptism in 988 the founding point of Russian statehood. At the same time, Russia’s FIMI omits that Volodymyr was the Prince of Kyiv, and that Moscow would only be founded 159 years later. This inconvenient fact does not prevent the Kremlin from promoting its falsehoods.
Volodymyr’s story is an example of how Russia appropriates other peoples’ histories. Putin personally perpetuated this myth, calling Christianity a ‘powerful unifying force’ that laid the foundation of the Russian nation. Also, Russian propagandists had assured the world earlier, that Russia would “never bomb Kyiv”, as the city has a sacred site, namely, Pechersk Lavra. The targeted attack against the UNESCO World Heritage site proves otherwise.
Russia’s repeated and systemic attacks on Ukraine’s religious shrines debunk the FIMI campaign that persistently calls Ukraine’s main churches ‘masterpieces of Russian holiness’. By deliberately damaging the Lavra, Russia has struck at the very foundations of its historical revisionism. ‘Putin has driven a nail into the coffin of his own historical myth,’ Ukraine emphasised at the UN in response to the Russian attack.
A Russian shooting gallery for Ukrainian culture
Ukraine is often bombarded by Russian FIMI after missile strikes. Following the 15 June night attack on the Lavra, the Kremlin claimed that Ukraine had attacked its own religious shrine and that Russia strictly adheres to the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property. But these words conceal barbaric, imperial, and Soviet approaches to the destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage that modern Russia practices. EUvsDisinfo wrote in detail about the methods of this Russian Cultural Special Operation back in 2023.
As of June 2026, UNESCO experts have verified and documented Russia’s destruction of 536 cultural sites in Ukraine, including religious sites, buildings of historical and/or artistic value, museums, monuments, libraries, and archives. Russian missiles targeted four of Ukraine’s eight UNESCO World Heritage sites: the historical centres of Odesa and Lviv as well as St. Sophia Cathedral and the Lavra in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture provides more complete data. Currently, about 1,900 cultural heritage sites and 2,700 cultural infrastructure properties have been recorded as destroyed or damaged by the Russian army. In addition, Russia has stolen more than 35,000 museum exhibits from the occupied territories of Ukraine. Another 1.7 million exhibits remain in the temporarily occupied territories and are at risk of theft and destruction.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture estimates the total direct damage to Ukrainian culture due to Russian aggression at four billion euros, and indirect losses at more than 20 billion euros.
Russian FIMI calls the destruction of Ukrainian culture and history a ‘Western hoax’, claiming that UNESCO ‘neglects’ the protection of Ukrainian historical heritage and ‘ignores’ the destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. For its part, Russian FIMI defines Ukraine’s cultural heritage as nothing more than monuments to Lenin and other imperial and Soviet figures, which are being torn down in Ukraine as part of decommunisation.
Escalation is the way
On 15 June, in addition to the Lavra, the nearby Mystetskyi Arsenal, one of Ukraine’s main cultural venues, was hit by Russian missiles. Russian missiles also struck the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio, causing extensive damage and destroying a 100,000-piece collection of costumes from films iconic to Ukrainians.
Two weeks earlier, during another attack on Kyiv, leading cultural institutions in the capital were damaged, including the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, the National Music Academy of Ukraine, the Ukrainian House National Centre, the Yaroslav the Wise National Library of Ukraine, and the Kyiv Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre for Children and Youth. The National Chornobyl Museum, which had reopened just a month earlier after a full restoration, also suffered extensive damage.
Russia has targeted cultural sites in Ukraine throughout its illegal invasion. However, these strikes escalated significantly in the spring of 2026. This new wave of Russian attacks comes amid the increasing difficulties that Russia has faced on the battlefield, and alongside Ukraine’s growing capabilities to strike targets deep within Russian territory.
Leading analysts and researchers view such Russian attacks as a sign of Putin’s desperation. He is unable to defeat the Ukrainian army on the battlefield or break the morale of Ukrainians, so he lashes out at Ukraine’s culture. The militarily senseless attacks against Ukraine’s cultural heritage once again illustrate that Putin has little interest in peace negotiations. Only total escalation, disguised by FIMI as a narrative about ‘Ukraine’s liberation’, fully corresponds to Russia’s interests.
Don’t be deceived.
By EUvsDisinfo
