Having had lived in Chernihiv, Ukraine, over 18 months, I was compelled to do justice to the Kyiv WHS, the country's most important WHS, by visiting all the associated sites, including the ones on the proposed extension, I had not visited before. (I had visited St. Sophia Monastery and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in the core zone and St. Michael's Monastery and St. Andrew's Church in the buffer zone.) By doing so I have learned a little more about this WHS, and that is what I would like to talk about here. 

WHS has to do with OUV and not with politics or religion. But I feel that visitors should at least know what they are visiting. I have encountered some foreign visitors to Japan who had no idea whether they were visiting a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. One even thought that the Himeji Castle was a Shinto shrine! 

The original St. Sophia (Hagia Sophia/Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople/Istanbul is now an Islamic mosque again. So what about St. Sophia (photo) in Kyiv? The importance of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, founded 40 years before Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, can't be exaggerated but today lies in the fact that it is sort of a neutral place of worship, as all major Christian denominations in Ukraine had made claims to St. Sophia Cathedral, creating much conflict. So it remains a museum today, just like St. Sophia in Constantinople/Istanbul was before 2020. 

If you visit St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, you would immediately notice another awe-inspiring monastery on the opposite end of Volodymyrska Passage. This is St. Michael's, the only major working monastery aside from Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, but is nowhere to be seen in the  proposed extension of this Kyiv WHS (although it is in the buffer zone). The origin of St. Michael's goes just as far back as St. Sophia, but St. Michael's was demolished by the Soviet in 1935 and was only reconstructed after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. (St. Sophia Cathedral was fortunately saved from the destruction by the Soviet.)  The reconstruction is one of the reason St. Michael's is not included in the extension, but there is another reason. 

The main religious body in Ukraine today is called Orthodox Church of Ukraine, after its creation by the mergers of several denominations in 2018 and the recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I (so called First Among Equals), in the following year. This also signified the schism between the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" and the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church", which is a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is headquartered at the St. Michael's Monastery described above and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is headquartered at Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Nominating St. Michael's would further p*** off the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin. At the time of the recognition Bartholomew I said, “The pious Ukrainian people have awaited this blessed day for seven entire centuries.”  I find it interesting that the UNESCO left at least one photo of St. Michael's in the gallery of the Kyiv WHS website.

Generally, after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the war in the Donbas region, the tendency in Ukraine today is, unfortunately, to eschew anything Russian more and more, including religion and language, giving Putin an excuse to call Ukraine a Nazi state. 

In short: 

St. Sophia Cathedral: a neutral place of worship

St. Michael's Monastery: Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Kyiv Pechersk Lavra: Ukrainian Orthodox Church / Russian Orthodox Church

Among the 3 locations of this WHS the only one I newly visited is the Church of the Saviour at Berestovo.  This Church is located just outside the wall of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra but is considered a part of the Lavra.  The original church from the 12th century was destroyed by the Mongols and was rebuild to one half of the size of the original in the 17th century, incorporating some remains from the original. The foundation of the original church can still be seen outside of the current one. This church is considered quite important partly because the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgorukiy (1099-1157), is supposed to be buried here. 

UPDATE: May, 2022

At least on the surface, Ukrainian Orthodox Church has cut ties with Russian Orthodox Church due to the latter's full support for Russia's war against Ukraine.