What Burns in Kyiv Reaches Toronto
Firefighters working at the Dormition Cathedral in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, which was set ablaze by Russian missile and drone strikes during the attack in Kyiv on June 15, 2026.
Photo: Ukrainian Culture Ministry
Last night, Russia launched one of its most egregious attacks on Kyiv. Among the targets: the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, an 11th-century monastery and UNESCO World Heritage Site at the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural life.
Across the road, the Mystetskyi Arsenal museum caught fire. The Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studio lost 100,000 historic costumes, irreplaceable pieces from a century of Ukrainian cinema, in a single strike. This strikes us with particular force: through our INSTITUT project, we launched a Banned Cinema segment featuring films from the Dovzhenko Centre — a way of bringing Ukrainian cinema to Toronto audiences who have rarely had the chance to see it. These are works still in the process of being remastered, dubbed, and subtitled, painstakingly made accessible to the international community. The masterpieces and legacy of Ukrainian film are being destroyed in real time. This is not incidental. Russia targets what Ukraine holds sacred.
Fire at Dovzhenko Film Studio. Photo: Tetiana Berezhna on Facebook
Independent journalists have been documenting this destruction since February 2022, often at great personal risk. The Kyiv Independent is one of the most important of those voices. Keeping it running matters.
This is one reason we're raising funds for the Kyiv Independent through our ongoing print sale featuring the work of photographer Carlos Gárate. His series, Where We Sing, exhibited this spring as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival, captures the Ukrainian community, its resilience, and its sense of belonging. The prints are beautiful. And 70% of every sale goes directly to the Kyiv Independent.
Culture is part of what's at stake, and there are ways to support Ukraine today and help protect and rebuild for the future. The photography sale is one. Directing funds to the Dovzhenko Centre directly is another. Every act of support, large or small, helps keep Ukrainian culture alive and visible.
