Russian missile and drone barrage damages Kyiv's UNESCO heritage monastery, kills 9

A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight damaged the Dormition Cathedral at Kyiv's Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and killed at least nine people across the country, Ukrainian authorities said on Monday.

The attack struck multiple locations in the Ukrainian capital and other regions, with four people reported killed in Kyiv and five more in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strike on the historic monastery complex as one of the most serious attacks on Christian cultural heritage since the start of the war.

“One of Russia's most serious crimes against Christian culture to date,” Zelenskyy said, while calling on leaders attending the G7 summit in France to increase pressure on Moscow and strengthen Ukraine's air defence capabilities.

The Dormition Cathedral, one of Ukraine's most significant religious landmarks, caught fire following the strike. Images from the site showed firefighters battling flames as smoke rose above the monastery complex.

Russia denied targeting the cathedral and claimed the damage had been caused by a US-made Patriot air defence missile.

Ukrainian officials rejected the assertion. Security personnel at the site reportedly recovered debris believed to be from Russian-made Shahed drones.

Heritage sites and civilian infrastructure hit

The overnight assault also damaged Kyiv's Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio, which houses one of the country's largest collections of historical costumes and cultural artefacts.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv would seek urgent action through UNESCO and other international institutions in response to the attack on the monastery.

France strongly condemned the strike, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot comparing it to an attack on the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and describing it as evidence of Russia's “cruelty”.

As firefighters worked to contain the blaze, church bells rang across the monastery complex in what clergy described as an act of defiance.

One of the war's largest aerial assaults

Ukraine's military said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones during the overnight attack.

According to the armed forces, air defence systems intercepted 50 missiles and 582 drones before they reached their targets.

Authorities reported damage at at least 16 locations across Kyiv, while residents spent hours sheltering in underground metro stations and bunkers as explosions echoed through the city.

In Kharkiv, five people were reported killed in what local officials described as a double-tap strike that appeared to target emergency responders arriving at an earlier attack site.

The assault came amid renewed diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Zelenskyy said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump on Sunday regarding prospects for peace negotiations.

The latest attacks also followed recent warnings by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow would intensify strikes against Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities said three people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Tula, while Ukrainian forces reportedly struck two bridges linking Russian-controlled territory with Crimea.