A special international tribunal must be established to try war criminals, including the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has blasphemously allied itself with Putin’s regime.

This was stated by French historian and expert on the Orthodox world Antoine Arjakovsky in an interview with Le Point, commenting on Russia’s strike on the cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

According to him, the Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv is for Ukrainians what the Basilica of Saint-Denis is for the French, a place of historical memory. This shrine embodies the entire history of Ukrainian spirituality since the 11th century.

He believes that the strike on the cathedral is a sign of Russia’s helplessness and desperation.

“Above all, it is a sign of the Russians’ profound helplessness. The fact that they dare to commit such an act proves it. Of course, Moscow denied this crime from the outset, falsely claiming that Ukrainian Patriot anti-aircraft missiles fell on the building. That is not true. The cathedral was indeed the target. It is a sign of the desperation of a regime that has no option left other than a scorched-earth policy,” the historian noted.

According to him, the most horrifying aspect remains the complicity of the Russian Orthodox Church in this act. Patriarch Kirill and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its foreign representations, continue to support Putin unconditionally.

In Arjakovsky’s view, a special international tribunal should be created to prosecute war criminals, both those who carried out the crimes and those who ordered the killings, including the apparatus of the Russian Church, which has blasphemously entered into an alliance with Putin’s regime.

As LF previously reported, during a massive attack on Kyiv on the night of June 15, Russia carried out deliberate strikes on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. As a result of the attack, the roof of the central Dormition Cathedral caught fire.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra holds three international statuses. Since 1990, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and since 2023 it has been included on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The site is also included in the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection. It is covered by the mechanism established by the Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.