Ballistic missile hits St. Andrew the Cathedral church in Zaporizhia

On January 18, during a morning attack, two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city’s St. Andrew the First-Called UOC cathedral in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. The dome of the church collapsed.

Fr. Konstantin Kostyukovich said that at the time of the attack, there was a duty officer in the church, who is there twenty-four hours a day, and a parishioner who always comes early. “Fortunately, neither of them were injured, but you can see what the explosion did,” he said.

During the Soviet period, this church was a cinema. In 1995, the reconstruction of the abandoned cinema into an Orthodox church began. The diocesan bishop there is Metropolitan Luka (Kovalenko) of Zaporizhia, who is among the most zealous supporters of Patriarch Kirill in the UOC.

The Zaporozhye Diocese appealed to citizens to donate funds: “We ask everyone who is able to do so to provide assistance and transfer funds to the cathedral’s account. Those who have the strength and opportunity to come and help eliminate the consequences.” Metropolitan Luke’s statement only says that “the tragedy is a test of our faith, … because we know that at the end of time faith will weaken.” In his statement, he does not mention “Russia” or the adjective “Russian.” Ukrainian historian and theologian Sergiy Shumylo commented that the stricken cathedral is one of the few in Ukraine where Metropolitan Luke continues to refer to Moscow Patriarch Kirill as “our lord and father” during services—a formula indicating jurisdictional subordination to Moscow. “The blessed missiles do not choose whether to fall on the fans of Russkiy Mir (Russian World) waiting for them with bread and salt, or on ordinary Ukrainians. This is the price of loyalty to Moscow, but I doubt that even this tragedy will change his position,” he says.

Since the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 until the beginning of 2024, 530 religious buildings have been damaged, with 9% of them completely destroyed and 16% irreversibly damaged. The largest number of religious buildings was damaged in the Donetsk region – 102. In the Kyiv region, 81 were damaged, in Luhansk – 62, in Kharkiv – 61, in Kherson – 56, in Zaporizhia – 32. Approximately half are churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. A third of the affected churches are Protestant. Cases of shelling of Jewish, Muslim and Hindu religious buildings have also been registered. On July 23, 2023, again with a missile attack from the Russian Federation, the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Odessa was practically destroyed.

In most cases, the destruction is the result of indiscriminate fire, but sometimes also of targeted strikes.

Photo: The temple icon of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. The Cathedral Church of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called in Zaporozhye.