Kyiv, Ukraine. Four people were killed and 23 injured in what authorities said was the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, as the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery caught fire and suffered serious damage. Officials urged residents to take shelter as drones and missiles struck the city.
Monastery damaged in attack
The central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051 and a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, in a Telegram post.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X: “A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values.”
Casualties and infrastructure damage
As flames rose over the monastery, residents sheltered underground during what was described as the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June, when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and wounded more than 100.
Kyiv authorities said drones and missiles struck several high-rise apartment buildings and damaged electricity lines, leaving about 140,000 residents without power.
International and religious responses
Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said on X: “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 come to an end?”
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that Ukraine would be “urgently initiating” procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to ensure “immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism” in response to the monastery attack.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna also condemned the Russian strikes.
Regional alert and diplomatic context
Neighbouring Poland, a member of the European Union and NATO, scrambled fighter jets on Monday over a possible airspace incursion. The alert was later lifted after the country’s Armed Forces said in a post on X that no airspace violation had been recorded.
The strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to end the conflict, which has lasted more than four years, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.
