Missile damages Catholic cathedral office in Kharkiv

"Mass had just ended. We miraculously survived. Thanks be to God, no one was injured because we were in the basement," recounted Father Wojciech Stasiewicz.

A Russian missile damaged the chancery of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

“Mass had just ended. We miraculously survived. Thanks be to God, no one was injured because we were in the basement,” recounted Father Wojciech Stasiewicz, vicar to the cathedral parish.

Katedra_Wniebowzięcia_Najświętszej_Maryi_Pann_P1510068.jpeg — The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The attack happened March 1 at about 9 o’clock in the morning. A missile destroyed the roof of the cathedral offices and one of the attic rooms.

A Facebook video shows the extensive damage to the building:

According to recordings provided by the Ukrainians (and various human rights organizations), Russians used cluster bombs in

yesterday’s assault in Kharkiv

, which over one hundred countries banned in a 2008 NATO treaty.

While most of Ukraine is Orthodox, some 10% of the population is in formal union with Rome. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church accounts for 8%-10% of the country’s population, and a smaller percentage are Latin Catholics. The Diocese of Kharkiv–Zaporizhia serves some 50,000 Latin-rite Catholics.