Russian attack sets fire to centuries-old religious site in Kyiv, kills rescuers in Kharkiv

Russia’s biggest offensive in Ukraine killed rescuers in Kharkiv and five people in the capital Kyiv on Monday as strikes burned apartments and set fire to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the country’s most important religious sites.

A series of loud explosions could be heard across Kyiv, with a wave of missiles followed by Shahed drones as many people sought shelter underground and officials urged residents to take cover.

The disaster killed five people in Kyiv, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. At least 30 people were injured, including two children aged five and six, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration.

Five strikes hit residential areas in the town of Shevchenkivskyi in less than 30 minutes, he said, including a 25-story building, while a market and a store were on fire. In Obolonskyi district, a nine-story residential building was directly affected.

The apartment strikes were a “deliberate decision” by Russia, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out strikes with long-range missiles and drones on military industrial facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro, as well as military recruiting offices and military air bases. It said “the goals of the strikes have been achieved and all the designated centers have been hit.”

Russia also said it hit the Kyiv-based Radar facility, which it said made drone parts, and the Mayak plant, which it said made Ukraine’s Flamingo long-range missiles. Military recruitment offices in Kyiv were also hit.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 70 missiles and 611 aircraft overnight, mostly targeting Kyiv, and also attacked the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv. The military said the air defense intercepted or electronically suppressed 632 aerial targets, including 50 missiles and 582 drones.

Initial data showed 20 ballistic missiles and 27 drones attacking 42 locations across the country, while debris from intercepted drones fell in 12 locations.

The attack kills the rescuers, destroys the college

In Kharkiv, authorities said the Russian military used a “double tap” tactic, launching four additional strikes in the area of ​​the previous attack in the Kholodnohirskyi district after emergency services arrived.

Four paramedics and an employee of the emergency department of the Kharkiv City Council were killed, while six rescuers and three civilians were injured. Separately, a woman was injured in the Shevchenkivskyi area of ​​the city, where residential buildings and vehicles were damaged in the drone strike.

In Dnipro, one of the buildings of the local college was destroyed, and the explosion shattered the windows of the school and the city’s House of Organ and Chamber Music, according to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration Oleksandr Hanzha.

Two people were injured and infrastructure, businesses, colleges and cultural centers were also damaged. The Russian military also carried out about 30 attacks using drones, artillery, missiles and air-guided bombs in Dnipro and in the regions of Kryvyi Rih, Pavlohrad, Synelnykove and Nikopol.

In the Sumy region, three people including a child were injured after a Russian strike hit a residential building and damaged a non-residential building, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.

The UNESCO site has been damaged

The damage to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a monastery, was extensive and there was a heavy fire, said Tkachenko, who accused Russia of deliberately hitting “the heart of one of the holy places of Christianity.”

The roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fire during the overnight attack, said Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He condemned the strike as another Russian crime “against humanity, history, and Christianity” and called for prayers to save the site.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a complex full of monasteries and churches, including some underground, built from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of the churches in the UNESCO World Heritage site are connected by a labyrinthine complex of caves covering more than 600 meters.

The cathedral, churches and other buildings line the right bank of the Dnipro River and have been a place of pilgrimage for centuries.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the attack was “similar, for us French, to the Notre Dame bombing,” referring to the Paris cathedral.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the attack only strengthened the determination of Ukraine’s allies to pursue a ceasefire and work for peace.

“Just as nothing can justify the war of aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years, nothing can justify this attack on our shared global heritage,” Macron wrote on social media.

The Ministry of Defense in Russia said that without presenting evidence that the building was hit by one of Ukraine’s Patriot air defense missiles, it said that it might have gone astray because it had expired.