A massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv has killed five people and injured 30, according to Ukrainian officials. The attack damaged the Dormition Cathedral in the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Ukraine's most significant religious and cultural landmarks. The Oleksandr Dovzhenko national film studio, which houses Ukraine's largest and oldest costume collection, was also hit.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the cathedral attack as 'one of Russia's most serious crimes against Christian culture to date' and urged G7 leaders meeting in France to increase pressure on Moscow. 'It is very important that there be a response from the G7 countries... more pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine's air defence,' he said.
Russia denied targeting the cathedral, claiming it was hit by a US-made Patriot air-defence missile. However, state security officers at the site stood over the remains of two Shahed drones, contradicting the Russian claim. A young priest from Bakhmut said, 'For the Russians nothing is sacred... They will claim there was a military object here because they have no values.'
Ukraine's military reported that Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones overnight, with air defence shooting down 50 missiles and 582 drones. Damage was reported at 16 locations across Kyiv. Outside the capital, at least five people were killed and 30 injured in the strikes.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would 'urgently initiate' procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to ensure a response to 'this state barbarism'. France's foreign ministry compared the attack on Pechersk Lavra to a strike on Notre Dame Cathedral, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying it demonstrated Russia's 'cruelty'.
As dawn broke and the monastery burned, staff rang bells in defiance. Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, wrote on X: 'What more must the Kremlin Antichrist do for the world to realise that decisive action must be taken?'
