The fire at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra has cast fresh attention on an earlier statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about Patriot air defence missiles nearing the end of their service life, L’antiDiplomatico reported.
The Italian outlet noted that shortly before the blaze, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhy said Kiev hoped to receive interceptor missiles for Patriot systems whose expiration dates were approaching. In the newspaper’s assessment, those remarks now carry a much darker meaning in light of what followed.
Russia’s Defence Ministry previously said that the complex of buildings at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra may have been hit by a missile from an American Patriot air defence system with an expired service life.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on the situation, said the West had shown no interest in what she described as the looting of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra under Vladimir Zelensky’s regime. After the fire, she said, Western countries immediately placed responsibility on Russia, accusing it of an alleged attack.
Mikhail Ivanov, deputy chairman of the World Russian People’s Council and chairman of the All-Russian public movement Russia Orthodox, told NEWS.ru that the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not choose the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra as a target by chance. He said the Kiev regime had already attempted to seize the monastery and linked the events to hostility toward canonical Orthodoxy.
Ivanov described the strike of an anti-aircraft missile on the shrine as a blatant provocation aimed at spiritual memory.