Historic monastery on fire as Ukraine faces major Russian attacks

Tokyo: Twenty people were injured and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire following a major Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital, authorities said on Monday (Kyiv time), urging residents to take shelter.

The attack damaged electricity lines and left 140,000 Kyiv residents without power, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that some houses and cars caught fire after being hit by drone debris.

The central Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a separate Telegram post.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X, with her post showing the monastery buildings in flames.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a sprawling complex of monasteries and churches, including some underground, built from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of the churches are connected by a labyrinthine complex of caves spanning more than 600 metres.

The city was under massive drone and missile attacks, with a number of high-rise apartments being hit, according to Kyiv authorities.

“What more must the Kremlin Antichrist do for the world to realise that decisive action must be taken so that the Russian terror against Ukraine and the very principles of peace comes to an end?” Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said on X.

Neighbouring Poland, a European Union and a NATO member, has scrambled its fighter jets and put ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance on a state of readiness, Poland’s Armed Forces said in a post on X.

Attacks on Ukraine’s regions, central Russia

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of Monday and Ukrainian drones were being repelled over Russia as both countries continued to exchange strikes in the more than four-year war.

In Kharkiv, five emergency service rescuers were killed and at least another five injured by a second Russian strike as they fought a blaze caused by an earlier attack, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Three people, including a child, were wounded in Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately attacking civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow of revenues to bring the end of the war closer.

On Monday, three people were killed and another three, including a one-year-old child, were injured in a drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster south of Moscow, the regional governor said in a Telegram post.

Moscow was also repelling a drone attack overnight, its mayor said on social media.

The latest strikes come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.

Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ready to help, the Kremlin said.

Progress towards a peace agreement in Ukraine has been slow, with US officials and mediators concentrating on the conflict in the Middle East.

US and Iranian officials said on Sunday they had agreed on a peace framework to end their war, with the pact expected to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland.

Reuters, AP

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