In the Donbas village of Dolyna, the rubble of a monastery once linked to the Russian Orthodox Church stands as an emblem of Moscow's ruinous invasion of Ukraine.
The Tragic Symbolism Of One Shattered Ukrainian Monastery
This image, taken in the village of Dolyna in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on November 2, shows the ruins of the 19th-century monastery at the heart of the St. Heorhiy (George) Skete.
A May 2018 file photo of the monastery.
The site has been in an effective no-go area during the back-and-forth fighting that has raged in eastern Ukraine since February.
The entrance to the monastery photographed on November 2. Russian script at top right labels St. Heorhiy "the bearer of victory."
The monastery and its surrounding buildings were largely destroyed during clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the spring.
Throughout the earlier phase of fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces that first broke out in the Donbas region in 2014, the landmark was in Ukrainian-held territory, but linked to the Russian Orthodox Church.
A toppled architectural detail lying in the rubble.
When the monastery was destroyed -- reportedly by a Russian rocket or missile strike in early May -- its leadership belonged to the branch of the Ukrainian church aligned with the patriarchate of Moscow.
The shrapnel-pocked rear walls of the monastery.
Since a 2018 schism, Ukraine's church leadership was split between those that maintained allegiance to the Moscow patriarchate and those who joined a new Ukrainian church.
Ammunition cases and a religious icon photographed inside the Dolyna monastery.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate formerly pledged allegiance to Russia's Patriarch Kirill, who has been vigorously supportive of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.
An abandoned dog in Dolyna's St. Heorhiy complex on November 2.
On May 27, just days after the destruction of the Dolyna monastery, the Russian-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate took measures to cut ties with Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
A sunflower growing in the ruins of Dolyna village.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Archbishop Klyment told the AFP news agency in May that the church rejected Kirill's position regarding the war. "Not only did he fail to condemn Russia's military aggression, but he also failed to find words for the suffering of Ukrainian people," the archbishop said.