Iversky Monastery (Donetsk)

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Iversky Monastery, also known as Іверський монастир, was a Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) monastery in Donetsk, Ukraine. It stood near the Donetsk airport and was built from 1997 to 2001; the first stone was laid in April 1997 by Hilarion (Szukało). The monastery opened in December 2001 as a branch of the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Mykilske, and became independent in December 2002. It was dedicated to Panagia Portaitissa and included a church with a bell tower, a convent building for the sisters, several other buildings, a cemetery, an orchard and a vegetable garden. In 2014, during the war in Donbas, the sisters evacuated and the monastery was closed. In January 2015 the building was largely destroyed in the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport; by then only a bullet-ridden shell remained.