Department for External Church Relations
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Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia in the village of Gruzskoye in the Belgorod region was damaged after being attacked by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
DECR Communication service, 04.09.2024.
On 3rd September the Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra in Lycia in the village of Gruzskoye in the Belgorod region was damaged after being attacked by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, reports the Patriarchia.ru website.
As Bishop Sophronius of Gubkin and Grayvoron stated in his report to His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', the church building was attacked by two unmanned drones at six o’clock in the morning. As a result, the cupola of the church was completely destroyed, the inner foundation part of the church was ruined by fire and the iconostasis was destroyed. “By God’s grace nobody suffered,” said the Bishop.
The report also states that earlier this year the Church of Saint Nicholas was subjected to drone attacks: on 30th May the windows beneath cupola were destroyed; on 2nd June the windows between the south gates of the church were destroyed; and on 7th June a drone damaged the cupola of the church. Attempts to destroy the church were also made on 11th June, 30th and 31st August, but the explosive devices were not detonated. After the first attack, with the blessing of bishop Sophronius, the rector of the Church of Saint Nicholas Father Alexander Kalchenko removed the antimension, the tabernacle for the holy gifts and other church items for safe keeping to another church.
“The last service to take place in the church was on the Dormition of the Virgin. At present it is impossible to hold worship in the Church of Saint Nicholas,” the report notes.
“I ask as a son for Your Primatial blessing and prayers that we endure with dignity all tribulations which our faithful people share in full measure with the Holy Church during these fateful days for our homeland,” Bishop Sophronius said in conclusion.
As the website https://t.me/vgladkov/9614 reports, the governor of the Belgorod region Vladislav Gladkov in his Telegram channel on 3rd September wrote that drones from the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked three villages in the Belgorod region. Apart from the Church of Saint Nicholas, a drone also hit a public target in the village of Gruzskoye. There are so far no indications of any casualties.
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