Russian strikes damage two Orthodox churches in Kyiv and the Odesa region

Russian attacks this week damaged two churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), according to Ukrainian officials and church sources.

In Kyiv, the Holy Intercession Church on Mostytska Street, in the Priorka neighborhood of Podilskyi district, was damaged in an attack overnight into Sept. 24. Volodymyr Nakonechnyi, head of the Podilskyi District State Administration, said the blast broke the windows and damaged the domes and the historic yellow-brick facade. Ukrainska Pravda and UNITED24 Media carried his account. He said the church was built in 1906 and is the oldest in the Mostytskyi and Vynohradar neighborhoods. The UOC's information department said debris fell onto the altar table and parish buildings were badly damaged. Ukrainska Pravda describes the parish as belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, a name it uses for the UOC. Citing Ukraine's State Emergency Service, UNITED24 reported that the attack on Kyiv that night killed two people and injured at least eight. None of the reports FWB reviewed mentions injuries at the church.

In Vylkove, a town on the Danube in Odesa region, the UOC's Odesa Eparchy said on Sept. 26 that Russian shelling had damaged the city's Holy Trinity Church. The UOC information department and the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) relayed the eparchy's account. It said the blast wave broke windows and damaged the doors, the interior, icons, the Sunday school building and the priest's house. The eparchy said no one was hurt. Bessarabia Inform, a local outlet, reported that drones struck Vylkove overnight into Sept. 26, damaging homes, a hotel complex and port facilities and cutting power. Its report did not mention the church.

FWB reported on Sept. 24 that a UOC church in Kramatorsk had been damaged.