DESS statement: Attack on St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv is act of Russian state vandalism, crime against world culture
The attack on St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, an 11th-century monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an act of Russian state vandalism and a crime against world culture, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) said.
"Today, June 10, at dawn during another Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital, the Russian Federation committed a cynical crime against world culture. The blast wave damaged the plastered cornice of the central apse of the eastern facade of the 11th-century architectural monument of St. Sophia Cathedral, a prominent pearl of the Kyivan Rus' and the entire Eastern European heritage. The aggressor once again, and this time perhaps most clearly, revealed its essence - the natural enemy of culture, art and progress," the DESS said on the statement posted on the official website.
It is noted that "the Kremlin dictator, who is ready to spend hours introducing the world community to pseudo-historical excursions and stories about the Polovtsy and Pechenegs, without hesitation, sends hordes of missiles and drones to the Cathedral, which preserves the memory of the Kyiv princes, the origins of ancient Russian statehood. This is no longer an attempt to intimidate the people of Kyivans, not just a desire to destroy our capital – this is an attack on our memory, our primary sources, our very identity."
"Sophia saw hordes of barbarians, interveners, invaders in her lifetime. She survived and survived them all – from Batu to Hitler. She will survive Putin too," the DESS said in a statement.
"The attack on Sofia is all that is needed to know about Russian cultural carriers of UNESCO and European capitals, those political leaders who still have illusions about the possibility of reaching an agreement with thieves and civilized rules of the game. Russia confidently and relentlessly places itself outside the boundaries of human civilization, where the memory of the past is cherished, the treasures of material and spiritual culture are protected, and non-compliance with the norms of human coexistence is punished," the document reads.
"Babyn Yar, Orthodox cathedrals, cemeteries, synagogues, places of worship, over 600 religious buildings – and now St. Sophia Cathedral. If the aggressor is not stopped, it will destroy both our past and our future. This is another tragic lesson for Ukrainians and for all of humanity, for those who have not yet seen behind the pharisaical signboard of 'Holy Rus' an ugly, military-chauvinistic cult," the DESS said.