The National Catholic Register reports on the June 14, 2026, Russian missile strike on the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, during a broader assault involving 70 missiles and 611 drones. Steven Moore, founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project, characterized the attack as “certainly deliberate,” part of what he called Russia’s “true goal” of “a war on Christianity in Ukraine,” citing the destruction of 750 churches and the killing of up to 80 pastors and priests. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date.” The Russian Ministry of Defense denied targeting the cathedral, claiming it was hit by a malfunctioning American Patriot missile. Moore dismissed this as propaganda, stating, “Putin is not making mistakes,” and criticized Western leaders like French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot for rhetorical condemnations without substantive action, noting Europe’s continued purchase of Russian fossil fuels funds the war. Moore advocated for cutting off all financial ties with Russia, asserting that “Putin only understands strength.” While the destruction of a historic Christian cathedral is a grave crime, the article’s framing within the geopolitical narrative of the Ukraine war and the absence of any supernatural or ecclesial context reveals the profound spiritual blindness of the modern world, which reduces the persecution of Christianity to a matter of international politics and human rights, utterly ignoring the divine judgment and the apostasy of nations that are the root causes of such evils.
