On the night of July 10, the premises of the Apostolic Nunciature, the diplomatic mission of the Vatican, were damaged in a massive russian attack in Kyiv.
This was reported by the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, Vatican News reports.
"Perhaps you can see even from Rome through the media that the attacks on the city of Kyiv are intensifying," he said.
Archbishop Kulbokas said that on the night of July 10, "even in the early morning, there were dozens and dozens of missiles and drones." He emphasized that the drones were targeting civilian neighborhoods.
"Because I also saw with my own eyes, I heard that some drones were flying directly around, around the nunciature, around the houses. I don't know what they were looking for. We heard several explosions, but two of them were very close. I also looked at the damage to civilian buildings: one about 70 meters from us, the other about 90 meters. Our premises also suffered some damage: the roof of the main building was damaged, and the garage and the office building were also damaged. We picked up about ten rather large fragments, and I think it was a drone, because they look like fragments of a drone, not missiles," Archbishop Kulbokas said.
Fragments picked up on the territory of the nunciature. Photo: Vatican News
He reported that people in the Vatican representation did not suffer any injuries. However, he emphasized that it "makes an impression" when you see explosions taking place in close proximity.
Kulbokas noted that the nunciature is located in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the Ukrainian capital, where there are many embassies. According to statistical calculations, this district is most often attacked after frontline cities in terms of the number of drones and missiles.
"Some of them fly just a few hundred meters from us, but tonight several flew very close. We do not know how many victims there were, because sometimes this data becomes known after one, two or three days, but every morning at Holy Mass we always pray for all the possible victims," the Pope's representative in Ukraine said.
According to him, once again, employees were unable to get to work on time because there is no way to move, the roads have to be cleared of a large amount of debris and shrapnel.
"By the way, these days the Mother Superior and her counselors came to visit the sisters working in the Nunciature. They also spent a sleepless night. They belong to the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent. In Ukraine, the Congregation was founded on June 8, 1926, by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, as the eastern branch of the congregation of the same name, founded in Belgium. Their main house is located in Lviv, and a community of three nuns works in our nunciature, for which we are very grateful to them. Today we also received the newly proclaimed Bishop of Kamianets-Podilskyi of the Latin rite. The fragments that hit the building fell a few meters from my apartment and the bishop's apartment," the nuncio said.
He added that when such explosions are heard, everyone in the nunciature goes downstairs, prepared to leave the building in case of a fire, because when a drone hits or its fragments fall, in addition to the blast wave, burning fuel spills out.
"Among other things, both today and in previous days, it is impossible to open windows, because there are fires all over the city, toxic substances from missile fuel and drone fuel are burning. For several hours, breathing the air in the city is very dangerous," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on the night of July 10, Kyiv experienced a massive combined attack by russian drones and ballistic missiles.
In Kyiv, during a massive combined attack by the aggressor country, the russian federation, cardiac surgeon Borys Todurov and his team removed, delivered and successfully transplanted a donor heart to a child.
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