In a statement issued on March 1—the sixth day of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine—Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that “information has been received that Russian troops are preparing an air strike on the most important shrine of the Ukrainian people.”

St. Sophia Cathedral, now a Ukrainian Orthodox church, dates from the 11th century.

The Major Archbishop appealed “to all Christians to pray for the spiritual sanctuary of the Slavic peoples and urges the aggressor to refrain from this most horrific act of vandalism.”