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Russia's Defense Ministry denied Monday that its forces had struck the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex during an overnight barrage on the Ukrainian capital.
Moscow claimed instead that the fire at the UNESCO World Heritage site was caused by a malfunctioning U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile and attributed the alleged malfunction to expired weaponry supplied by Western countries.
"The armed forces of the Russian Federation do not plan or carry out strikes against civilian infrastructure," the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
"According to confirmed reports, the complex of buildings at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was struck by a missile from the American Patriot air defense system. One possible reason for the malfunction of this system could be that Western countries supplied the Kyiv regime with missiles that had expired," the statement added.
The denial came hours after Russia simultaneously released a detailed list of what it said were its actual targets, all described as military-industrial facilities, and claimed all designated objectives had been struck.
In a Telegram statement, Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday's barrage had targeted the following facilities in Kyiv:
In Kharkiv, the ministry said it struck Greenhouse Solution and DT-1 Group LLC, both of which were described as assembling warheads for drones and missiles.
The ministry also said it struck military airfields at Vasylkiv, Uman, Cherkasy, and Krasna Slobidka, as well as military recruitment centers in Kyiv.
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Ukraine and multiple Western governments had previously attributed the cathedral fire directly to Russia's overnight attack.
Ukrainian officials confirmed that the roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fire at 1:48 a.m. local time and that firefighters extinguished the blaze by 8:35 a.m., but not before the roof was partially destroyed.
Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna confirmed the cathedral had been damaged. Metropolitan Epiphanius I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the strike as "another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity."
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would urgently initiate procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to demand "immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism."
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra was added to UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger list in 2023. Founded in 1051, it is described by UNESCO as "a masterpiece of Ukrainian art" and is regarded as one of the holiest sites in Ukrainian Christianity.
According to the Kyiv Independent, the strike was only the third attack on the site since World War II.
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