Russian attacks in Ukraine kill nine, damage historic Kyiv cathedral

A ample overnight rocket and drone onslaught strikes Kyiv, Kharkiv and different Ukrainian cities.

A ample overnight Russian rocket and drone barrage has killed astatine slightest 9 radical crossed Ukraine, knocked retired energy to 140,000 households and ignited a large occurrence astatine the Dormition Cathedral wrong the UNESCO-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex.

The assault, which struck aggregate cities, including the capital, marked 1 of the astir destructive aerial bombardments connected Kyiv’s taste and civilian infrastructure successful months, Ukrainian officials said connected Monday.

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In Kyiv, exigency services battled a occurrence that broke retired aboriginal connected Monday connected the extortion of the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral, the spiritual bosom of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

Maksym Ostapenko, manager wide of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Preserve, told Ukrainian authorities broadcaster Suspilne that a Russian kamikaze drone made a nonstop deed connected the cathedral’s roof, engulfing astir 800sq metres (8,600sq ft) successful flames.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, oregon Monastery of the Caves, is simply a famed Eastern European spiritual landmark overlooking the Dnipro River. The analyzable features an extended web of underground caves stretching much than 600 metres (650 yards) and has served arsenic a large Christian pilgrimage tract for centuries.

Monks and rescue workers formed quality chains to evacuate icons and priceless liturgical relics from the burning operation earlier firefighters brought the blaze nether control.

The Ministry of Culture reported that the barrage besides heavy damaged the adjacent Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios, destroying its superior costume repository and incinerating an irreplaceable postulation of astir 100,000 garments.

Metropolitan Epiphanius I, caput of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the onslaught connected the cathedral successful a station connected X arsenic “a transgression against humanity, against history, and against Christianity”.

First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko added that the demolition exposed “the existent look of Russia’s Orthodox values”.

Local monitoring channels reported that Moscow deployed dozens of Shahed kamikaze drones and astatine slightest 15 high-speed ballistic missiles towards Kyiv alone. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said astir 20 radical were wounded successful the capital, including a kid and a large woman, arsenic residential high-rises took nonstop hits crossed the Obolonskyi, Solomianskyi and Pecherskyi districts.

In the northeastern metropolis of Kharkiv, a “double-tap” onslaught killed 5 State Emergency Service rescuers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The archetypal responders were targeted by a 2nd drone onslaught portion extinguishing a occurrence caused by an archetypal rocket onslaught minutes earlier. At slightest 5 further archetypal responders were injured successful the 2nd blast, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin each spoke separately by telephone with United States President Donald Trump connected Sunday astir the Ukraine war. Zelenskyy said connected X that the telephone covered steps that could assistance execute peace. The Kremlin said Putin and Trump discussed bid negotiations involving the US and Iran.