telegraph.co.uk
2026-06-19
Volodymyr Zelensky's face blanched with anger as he emerged from Kyiv's Dormition Cathedral.
The Shahed drone attack on this most precious religious site was, he said, "one of the greatest Russian crimes against Christian culture to date".
Above the Unesco-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, grey smoke hung in the air, making it hard to breathe. On the ground lay smouldering rubble, including one of the monastery's gold-leaf cupolas, wrenched from its seat.
Shortly before 2am, a long-range kamikaze drone had plunged into the copper roof of the 11th-century cathedral and ignited a blaze that spanned 800 sq m.