Kyiv held the 9th International Veterans Forum. The event took place ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day, with US Special Representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul joining it, the Ukrainian Presidential Office reports.

As of 1 May 2026, more than 2 million people had veteran status. Of the 2,014,623 veterans in total, 1,471,193 had combatant status, while 159,132 had received disability status as a result of the war, according to the National Institute of Strategic Studies.

Ukrainians will decide who counts as a hero

At the forum, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the new Ukrainian Pantheon, where Ukrainians who played a significant role in shaping the national consciousness and identity will be buried.

Ukrainians themselves will decide whom to call their heroes, he said, adding that the veteran community should be involved in national commemoration policies.

The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution establishing that the Ukrainian National Pantheon will be located on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Preserve, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1990.

The forum brought together a veteran community of more than two million

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was founded in 1051 and was controlled by the Russian Church for centuries. After Ukraine gained independence, it was used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate until the state began the process of returning it to the Ukrainian people.

“The Ukrainian Pantheon will definitely exist. Only Ukrainians will decide for themselves who our heroes are,” Zelenskyy stated.

He also emphasized that Ukraine’s independence rests on the shoulders of people who are ready to fight for it. According to Zelenskyy, independence is not a single moment in the country’s past.

“Each of us can name many important moments, days and battles when the fate of our state was being decided. And it is being decided now,” Zelenskyy stressed.

The Ukrainian president expressed hope that Ukraine would achieve peace and thanked the country’s defenders.

As Russia damages Ukraine's holiest sites, other countries are paying to rebuild them. Switzerland will contribute about $730,000 to the preservation and restoration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, whose Dormition Cathedral was damaged in a Russian strike two months ago, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.

The gift is a piece of an international effort to protect the Ukrainian heritage that Russia is attacking. On the night of 15 June, a Russian attack drone struck the altar section of the Dormition Cathedral, igniting a large fire that burned about 80% of the roof structures, according to UkrInform.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, where the cathedral is located, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and carries enhanced protection under the 1954 Hague Convention's Second Protocol.

The strike hit a site weeks before its anniversary

Sybiha framed the strike as a deliberate blow to a spiritual landmark. Russia hit the centuries-old shrine two months before the Lavra's 975th anniversary, deliberately targeting one of Ukraine's most important spiritual and cultural landmarks, he said.

He tied the damage to a wider Russian aim.

"While Russia seeks to destroy Ukraine's cultural heritage and erase our identity, our partners stand with us in protecting and preserving it for future generations," Sybiha said.

Switzerland's aid comes through UNESCO

The Swiss contribution channels international heritage protection. Switzerland's Federal Council delegate for Ukraine, Jacques Gerber, announced in Kyiv that Switzerland would provide the contribution through UNESCO to protect and restore the shrine.

Sybiha thanked Switzerland for its support and for Gerber joining Ukraine in Kyiv to mark the 975th anniversary of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

"Together, we are safeguarding Ukraine's heritage and an invaluable part of Europe's and the world's cultural legacy," he said, framing the Lavra's preservation as a shared European and global responsibility, not Ukraine's alone.

The aid answers a documented campaign against heritage

As of the end of July 2026, Russian forces damaged or destroyed 1,990 cultural heritage sites and 2,625 cultural infrastructure sites in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian government.

The Ministry of Culture records the highest number of damaged cultural heritage sites in Kharkiv Oblast — 358, Kherson Oblast — 303, Kyiv — 272, Donetsk Oblast — 229, and Odesa Oblast — 211.

Cultural institutions have been damaged in 354 territorial communities, representing 24% of all communities in Ukraine.