(Adnkronos) – A massive overnight Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital which killed at least four people and injured over a dozen, setting the Unesco-listed medieval Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery on fire “is of exceptional gravity” and shows that Russia doesn’t want peace, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday.
Russia’s missile and drone attack on Kiev badly damaged the Dormition Cathedral in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery complex – a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of Ukraine’s most important religious and cultural monuments, which dates from 1050.
“The attack is of exceptional gravity and shows that Russia does not want peace talks,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union Council meeting in Luxembourg.
“Kiev is also the religious capital of a world. So care is needed, also on the Russian side, not to desecrate the sentiments of Orthodox Christians, including those in Russia,” Tajani continued.
The Kremlin is making serious mistakes in its over-four-year invasion of Ukraine, showing that “it is in trouble”, Tajani argued.
“We must now continue to apply pressure in order to finally achieve dialogue between the two sides,” he concluded.
Russia denied targeting the cathedral and monastery complex and claimed it had been hit with a US-made Patriot air-defence missile.
