A large-scale Russian aerial assault on Ukraine overnight into Monday killed at least 11 civilians and emergency workers and set fire to the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the most revered Orthodox sites in the country and a UNESCO World Heritage landmark.
A Russian "kamikaze" drone scored a direct hit on the cathedral's roof, igniting roughly 800 square metres in flames, the preserve's director said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko later climbed onto the damaged roof to survey it. "This is how Russia shows the world its intention to continue the war," Zelenskyy said.
Moscow launched dozens of Shahed drones and at least 15 ballistic missiles at the capital alone, Ukrainian officials said, with about 20 people wounded in Kyiv including a child and a pregnant woman. Electricity was knocked out to some 140,000 households.
In Kharkiv, five rescuers from the State Emergency Service were killed in a "double-tap" strike — a second munition timed to hit responders after they arrived at the scene of the first. Ukraine's prosecutors said they were investigating the attacks as war crimes.
The Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios in Kyiv also sustained heavy damage, destroying a costume repository holding an estimated 100,000 garments, according to Ukrainian cultural officials.
The timing of the barrage — hours before G7 leaders convened in Évian — sharpened Zelenskyy's appeal for help. He called for a response that is "decisive and substantive: more pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine's air defence," after his offer to meet President Vladimir Putin was rejected.
Russia has intensified long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities through the spring, repeatedly hitting energy infrastructure and, increasingly, cultural and religious sites that Kyiv says are protected under international law. Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians.