{"id":83211,"date":"2026-06-02T08:16:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=83211"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:16:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:16:55","slug":"russia-destroys-church-of-the-nativity-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-in-donetsk-oblast-with-incendiary-drone-protected-site-under-geneva-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/russia-destroys-church-of-the-nativity-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-in-donetsk-oblast-with-incendiary-drone-protected-site-under-geneva-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Destroys Church Of the Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary In Donetsk Oblast With Incendiary Drone \u2014 Protected Site Under Geneva Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <em>Euromaidan Press:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/euromaidanpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/%D0%A1%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BA-%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-2026-05-31-181822.png\" alt=\"The fire is seen at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Zakitne, Donetsk Oblast, after a Russian drone hit it. Source: The 81st Airmobile Brigade\" width=\"503\" height=\"347\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>A Russian drone destroyed the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Zakitne, Donetsk Oblast, by dropping an incendiary munition onto its roof on 30 May<\/strong>, Ukraine&#8217;s 81st Separate Airmobile &#8220;Slobozhansky&#8221; Brigade\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/v\/18vZt9mGMk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>\u00a0the following day.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pk-content-block pk-block-bg pk-block-bg-light\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Places of worship are protected sites under Article 53 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. It explicitly prohibits\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ihl-databases.icrc.org\/en\/ihl-treaties\/api-1977\/article-53\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">committing<\/a> acts of hostility against historic monuments, works of art, or places of worship, using them to support military efforts, or making them the object of reprisals.\u00a0 Chaplain who used to serve there:\u00a0 <em>I hoped that the church in the village would stand to the end and that after liberation by our soldiers, I could return there, but the Russians&#8230; God will judge them,&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0Father Yaroslav, chaplain of the 81st Airmobile Brigade, said.<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"news\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1780388191\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"Russia Destroys Church Of the Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary In Donetsk Oblast With Incendiary Drone \u2014 Protected Site Under Geneva Convention\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Euromaidan Press: A Russian drone destroyed the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-83211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83214,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83211\/revisions\/83214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}