Consecrated in 2004, the complex is a dependency of the important Dormition monastery in Sviatohirsk, where nearly 300 civilians have taken refuge according to the Ukrainian authorities.
The building was said to be one of the most enchanting in the region. The Hermitage of All Saints in Svyatohirsk was damaged during the ongoing fighting in the Donbass, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture announced on Saturday. Images posted on social networks on Saturday afternoon showed the roof of the wooden building being consumed by a major fire.
According to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the site was hit by an incendiary weapon. “The main building was completely devastated”, said the Church in a press release, indicating that it does not yet know if any victims are to be deplored. In 2019, about ten monks lived in this hermitage. The complex is located some 500 meters south of the Lavra, a large monastery, of Sviatohirsk, one of the most important Orthodox sites in the country of which it is a dependency. A week before the attack on the complex, on May 28, the Moscow branch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, on which the monastery depends, announced that it was breaking with Russia because of the offensive launched by Vladimir Putin with the fervent support of Russian Patriarch Kirill.
Heart of Donbass, heart of the fighting
The Dormition Monastery would serve as a shelter for nearly 300 refugees, including about 60 children, according to the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information, Oleksandr Tkachenko, quoted by the Interfax news agency. Russians “continue to assert their inability to be part of the civilized world”, the minister commented on Facebook on Saturday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced the attack on the religious site. “Occupiers know exactly which facility they are bombing. They know that there are no military targets on the territory of Sviatohirsk Lavra”he said late Saturday afternoon, on Facebook, renewing his call to exclude Russia from Unesco.
Built in wood in the early 2000s, in the style of Orthodox sacred architecture of the XVIe and XVIIe centuries, this hermitage was built on the site of an old stone church, closed and then destroyed during the Soviet era. Like the important nearby monastery, this complex is located close to the Seversky Donets River, which forms – especially around Sieverodonetsk – a significant operational obstacle to the Russian armed forces.
Sviatohirsk Lavra had already been partially damaged by a few shells in the first months of the conflict. Located between Izyum and Sloviansk, in Donetsk Oblast, the city of Sviatohirsk has been bitterly disputed between Russian and Ukrainian forces since the start of the Donbass offensive in April. This week, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine announced on Wednesday the death of three people, two monks and a nun, killed during a bombardment of the monastery. Three clerics were also injured on Monday.