Nine killed, historic monastery on fire as Ukraine faces major Russian attacks

Four people were killed while the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire, in the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, authorities said on Monday, urging residents to take shelter.

The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday (Kyiv time) he had spoken to US President Donald Trump about efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.

The central Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a separate Telegram post.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.

As towering flames rose over the monastery, residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June, when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and left more than 100 wounded.

Drones and missiles struck several high-rise apartment buildings and damaged electricity lines, leaving some 140,000 residents without power, according to Kyiv authorities.

Ukraine’s military said on Monday that Russia had launched 70 missiles and 611 drones on Ukraine overnight and its air defence shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones of various types.

Four people were killed and 30 were injured, Tkachenko said.

“What more must the Kremlin Antichrist do for the world to realise that decisive action must be taken so that the Russian terror against Ukraine and the very principles of peace comes to an end?” Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said on X.

Neighbouring Poland, a European Union and a NATO member, scrambled fighter jets against a possible airspace incursion, before recalling the alert and saying no sky violation had been recorded, its armed forces said in a post on X.

Ukraine would be “urgently initiating” procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to ensure “immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism”, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X in reference to the monastery attack, with Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna also condemning the Russian strikes.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a sprawling complex of monasteries and churches, including some underground, built from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of the churches are connected by a labyrinthine complex of caves spanning more than 600 metres.

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of Monday and Ukrainian drones were being repelled over Russia as both countries continued to exchange strikes.

In Kharkiv, five emergency service rescuers were killed and at least another five injured by a second Russian strike as they fought a blaze caused by an earlier attack, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Three people, including a child, were wounded in Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.

Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately attacking civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow of revenues and hasten an end to the war.

On Monday, three people were killed and another three, including a one-year-old child, were injured in a drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster south of Moscow, the regional governor said in a Telegram post.

Ukraine also moved overnight to cut off the Black Sea Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 and already grappling with a fuel crisis, from further supplies by hitting two bridges connecting it to the Russian-controlled areas.

Before his conversation with Trump, Zelensky had proposed direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire solution involving the US and Europe – something Britain, Germany and France supported but Putin rebuffed.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Trump told the Russian leader that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ready to help.

Progress towards a peace agreement in Ukraine has been slow, with US officials and mediators concentrating on the conflict in the Middle East.

US and Iranian officials said on Sunday they had agreed on a peace framework to end their war, with the pact expected to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland.

Reuters, AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.