The Russian war in Ukraine took a telling turn June 9. A drone strike damaged St. Sophia Cathedral in the capital, Kyiv. The white-walled church is the country’s spiritual center, a symbol of the arrival of Christianity a millennium ago. Its gold dome, green cupolas, and Byzantine art are seen as the cultural core of Ukrainian identity – something Russian President Vladimir Putin claims does not exist.
How did Ukraine react to the attack? Within days, work began to repair the eastern facade of the 11th-century landmark.
The quick restoration is essential to sustaining the morale and resilience of Ukrainians during a war in which Russian forces have deliberately damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 religious and cultural structures.
“We will rebuild all of them,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the strike on St. Sophia.
Russia is not only attacking Ukrainian cities. “It is waging a war against our culture, memory and future,” Mykola Tochytskyi, the country’s minister for culture, told Agence France-Presse. He said the cathedral is the “soul of Ukraine.”
The restoration and preservation of Ukraine’s heritage has become so important that plans are underway to set up a special fund for the work at a meeting of international donors on July 10-11 in Rome. The idea for the Ukraine Heritage Response Fund was endorsed by at least 20 countries as well as the European Commission and UNESCO at a meeting in February.
Many of the historic sites, from museums to libraries, have served as hubs for humanitarian relief and shelter during the war. They are now “part of the infrastructures of care and resilience,” said Diána Vonnák, a scholar of urban history at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom.
President Zelenskyy sees a spiritual goal in saving these structures – including the clergy members who work in religious institutions. “Just as we are liberating priests and pastors from Russian captivity, just as we are doing everything to protect Ukrainian cities and villages and the lives of people in them, we are restoring the ability to believe – to believe that evil and destruction will not prevail,” he said.
