Communication Between the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Primate of the Church of Ukraine
The Ecumenical Patriarchate learned with profound sorrow and deep dismay of the unacceptable and sacrilegious missile attack carried out by the Russian Federation against the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, which it unequivocally condemns, together with every similar attack directed against sacred and emblematic monuments of the shared religious and cultural heritage of Christianity.
No reasonable person and no argument can justify such a barbaric and destructive attack against a sacred place of pilgrimage as the renowned Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, with its long history and tradition, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew spoke by telephone with His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, to whom he expressed his outrage at the Russian attack and the wholehearted solidarity of the Mother Church, as well as his own personal support, for the long-suffering people of Ukraine. He also conveyed his sympathy to the families of the victims and to those who were injured in the attack.
