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What the June 2026 Kyiv strikes hit
Summary
A look back at attacks on Kyiv's cultural sites and the deaths reported around 15 June 2026.
What did the Russian strikes on Kyiv leave damaged as of 17 June 2026? Two days earlier, on 15 June 2026, the Dormition Cathedral in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra was heavily damaged and set ablaze during the attacks, and the Dovzhenko Film Studios in the city were also attacked.
The toll
As reported at the time, nine people were killed, including five rescue workers who were attending fires set by strikes in Kharkiv.
A wider pattern of damage
The attacks fell within the broader Russian invasion, which began on 24 February 2022 as a major escalation of a war that started in 2014. Over the course of the fighting, many pieces of Ukrainian cultural heritage have been destroyed, damaged or put at risk. The destruction and looting of more than 500 Ukrainian cultural heritage sites is considered a war crime, and Ukraine's Minister of Culture has described it as cultural genocide.
The damage to the cathedral in the Lavra and the attack on the film studios in Kyiv were two more entries in that record of harm to Ukrainian culture, alongside the loss of life among emergency workers.
