Russian airstrike damages Kyiv Catholic church

Built between 1899 and 1909 for Kyiv’s Latin Catholic community, St Nicholas’ Church is considered one of the city’s finest neo-Gothic buildings.

A Russian airstrike on Kyiv damaged St Nicholas’ Church, the second oldest Roman Catholic church in the city.

Eight ballistic missiles struck the city shortly after 7am, killing one person and injuring at least 12 others according to initial reports. One missile hit a business complex in the Pechers’kyi district and the blast damaged the nearby church, according to the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas.

“There were people in the church, who had come for the Mass,” he told The Tablet. “Nobody was injured. The damage was done to the windows and stain-glass windows.”

A report from the city administration detailed the damage. “The facade and the central Gothic ‘rose’ stained glass window were damaged,” it said. “The concrete frame and both outer and inner glazing were severely impacted. Additionally, the blast wave destroyed the window frames of the staircases leading to the spires – known as the northern and southern ‘khrestocvity’ (cross-flowers).”

Built between 1899 and 1909 for Kyiv’s Latin Catholic community, St Nicholas’ is considered one of the city’s finest neo-Gothic buildings. It was not used as a church for much of its history: the Soviet authorities closed it in 1938 and converted it into a concert hall after restoration work in 1980. Masses resumed after its reconsecration in January 1992, following Ukrainian independence, although the building continued to host concerts for the National House of Organ and Chamber Music.

Parishioners have reported concerns about the condition of the building – which remains the property of the Ministry of Culture – for more than a decade. The church survived a severe fire in 2021 which destroyed its organ. The strike has reportedly imperilled the structure, adding it to the list of 1,200 cultural sites damaged or destroyed since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Archbishop Kulbokas said airstrikes generally targeted factories and energy infrastructure, “but the energy infrastructure means a variety of objectives inside the capital … if you are anywhere in the city, there will always be one in a two-to-three-kilometre radius around you.”

He said previous attacks had hit “a paediatric hospital, commercial centres, hotels, universities”, some close to the church, but none had caused this level of damage. He explained the effect of an airstrike on the area surrounding the target.

“There are some who say that when there is a missile strike within a 500-metre radius, domestic animals such as dogs are at a great risk of becoming heavily traumatised and need specialised psychological assistance,” he said.

“My personal experience is that a missile hitting an objective 700 metres away [the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in July 2024] made all the inside doors [of the church] open and the building tremble, but it didn’t cause permanent damage.”

In a message to Aid to the Church in Need earlier this week, the nuncio said that many parts of Ukraine lacked essentials while others hosted large numbers of refugees.

“And, of course, I would say the psychological assistance for everybody – not only the military and families – including priests, religious, volunteers [is important] because three years of war have produced a lot of difficulties at the psychological level,” he said.

On Thursday, Pope Francis sent the papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski to deliver a mobile ambulance and six ultrasound scanners to Ukraine, the cardinal’s eighth visit to the country since the Russian invasion.

“Pope Francis prays for peace in this war-torn country every day, but in a concrete way he wants to be present among them in these days, when we will celebrate the Birth of Jesus,” said a statement from the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

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