Moscow, June 8, 2022
Official representatives and eyewitnesses claim that the Russian military did not damage the Sviatogorsk Lavra in Ukraine, reports Interfax Religion.
The Russian military, despite the fighting, did not allow any damage on the territory of the Sviatogorsk Historical and Architectural Reserve, said the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov.
“Despite the fighting that took place in Sviatogorsk, no damage to historical and Orthodox monuments on the territory of the Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra was allowed by Russian servicemen,” Konashenkov told reporters on Tuesday.
As proof, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation showed video footage taken from a drone of the current state of the Sviatogorsk Lavra.
Sorrowfully, four monastics died during the fierce fighting that took place near the monastery.
Konashenkov stressed that the Russian Armed Forces are under orders to prevent shelling or possible damage to objects of historical and cultural heritage.
According to him, the testimonies of monks and residents of Sviatogorsk confirm that the arson of the wooden hermitage of All Saints of the Russian land committed on June 5 was committed by the Ukrainian military.
Eyewitnesses claim that the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine arrived on the territory of the reserve on June 2 to place artillery positions there to fire at the troops of the Russian Federation who were on the other side of the river. However, by June 4, the Ukrainian group of troops had lost control over most of Sviatogorsk, so they proceeded to set fire to a wooden hermitage with incendiary ammunition from a large-caliber machine gun mounted on an armored car, Konashenkov said. The arson, according to him, was a provocation. It could be surmised that the arson was an act of vengeance, considering that the skete was dedicated to All Saints of the Russian Land, and built in the historical Russian style of wooden architecture.
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The Skete of All the Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land is located on the territory of the Holy Dormition Sviatogorsk Lavra, near the town of Sviatogorsk of the Donbass region. It was built by the Lavra according to architectural plans drafted by the Lavra’s brothers, with the intention of reviving the tradition of wooden churches that once abundantly adorned the region in the 15th-17th centuries.
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