Good morning. It is Sunday, February the 26th, day 368 of Russia's war on Ukraine. I'm Ali Valshi

live at St. Michael Square in front of the St. Michael's Monastery

and Cathedral in the capital of Kiev, where I've been reporting and hosting for the past two

weeks. And during this time, we've come to expect air raid sirens every day. It's a new normal

here due to the constant threat of Russian jets, missiles, and self-destructing drones. If an air raid

siren does sound during the show this morning,

we will need to immediately leave this location and head to a more secure spot. And if so,

my colleague Katie Fang is standing by stateside to pick up coverage until I'm all set and safe to rejoin you. Earlier this week, an air raid siren went off while President Biden was making

his historic visit to Kiev right in front of where I stand.

Biden walked with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the square of St. Michael's Monastery.

Now, the cathedral and its quintessential towers and bells have been the backdrop and soundtrack

of much of my colleagues and my own reporting during the course of the war. In a way,

St. Michael's Monastery and its rich history is the history and heritage of the war. In a way, St. Michael's monastery and its rich history

is the history and heritage of Ukraine itself. And Joseph Stalin's past view of the monastery

could stand as a prelude to Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. The monastery, which was built in

the 14th, I'm sorry, the 11th century is named after St. Michael,

whom Ukrainians consider to be the protector of Kiev,

while the characteristic golden dome towers and the bell tower were added throughout the 1700s.

Later, the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin, deemed this iconic symbol of Ukrainian culture

to have, quote, no historic value and ordered

its closure in the early 1930s. Then a couple of years later, it ordered its destruction,

blowing this church up. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, following the fall of the Soviet

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