Russian attacks in Ukraine kill nine, damage historic Kyiv cathedral

A large overnight Russian missile and drone barrage has killed at least nine people across Ukraine, knocked out electricity to 140,000 households and ignited a major fire at the Dormition Cathedral within the UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex.

The assault, which struck multiple cities, including the capital, marked one of the most destructive aerial bombardments on Kyiv’s cultural and civilian infrastructure in months, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

In Kyiv, emergency services battled a fire that broke out early on Monday on the roof of the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral, the spiritual heart of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

Maksym Ostapenko, director general of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Preserve, told Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne that a Russian kamikaze drone made a direct hit on the cathedral’s roof, engulfing roughly 800sq metres (8,600sq ft) in flames.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, or Monastery of the Caves, is a famed Eastern European religious landmark overlooking the Dnipro River. The complex features an extensive network of underground caves stretching more than 600 metres (650 yards) and has served as a major Christian pilgrimage site for centuries.

Monks and rescue workers formed human chains to evacuate icons and priceless liturgical relics from the burning structure before firefighters brought the blaze under control.

The Ministry of Culture reported that the barrage also heavily damaged the nearby Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios, destroying its primary costume repository and incinerating an irreplaceable collection of roughly 100,000 garments.

Metropolitan Epiphanius I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the attack on the cathedral in a post on X as “a crime against humanity, against history, and against Christianity”.

First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko added that the destruction exposed “the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values”.

Local monitoring channels reported that Moscow deployed dozens of Shahed kamikaze drones and at least 15 high-speed ballistic missiles towards Kyiv alone. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said about 20 people were wounded in the capital, including a child and a pregnant woman, as residential high-rises took direct hits across the Obolonskyi, Solomianskyi and Pecherskyi districts.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, a “double-tap” strike killed five State Emergency Service rescuers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The first responders were targeted by a second drone attack while extinguishing a fire caused by an initial missile strike minutes earlier. At least five additional first responders were injured in the second blast, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.