Before the war, Kyiv was not only a vibrant European metropolis, but also a popular World Heritage site. The St. Sophia Cathedral with the oldest mosaics in Eastern Europe is on the Unesco list, but above all the Kiev Cave Monastery with its catacombs, churches and museums. In 1112, on the west bank of the Dnieper, the monk Nestor wrote the first East Slavic chronicle. The first book printing works in Eastern Europe were established here, the gold treasure of the Scythians can be seen here with 20,000 breathtaking exhibits and the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary with its five onion domes. After his visit to the “Petscherska Lawra”, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about the mummies of the hermits: “They also felt closed monastery rooms/too close to laughter and blare/so that they dug deep into the earth.” According to legend, the cave system stretches as far as Moscow. Russia in particular is now threatening the sites. Russian troops have encircled the capital. Military historian Vasil Pavlov is a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisory board. He founded an NGO to save the national cultural heritage and explains why the common Ukrainian-Russian history does not protect Ukraine’s cultural assets.
Zelensky adviser Vasil Pavlov on Ukrainian monuments – culture
