U.S. President Donald Trump has celebrated the agreement reached with Iran and voiced hope that it will bring that war to a full end. But another war he had also sought to stop continues with full force.
Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Ukrainian cities between Sunday and Monday, killing five rescue workers in Kharkiv and four people in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities. In the capital, the historic Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves and one of the city’s most prominent religious and cultural symbols, was also hit and caught fire.
Massive Kyiv attack sets 1,000-year-old cave monastery ablaze
(Video: Reuters)
According to Ukraine’s military, the attack included 70 missiles and 611 drones. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 50 missiles and 582 drones, the military said.
Kyiv authorities reported four dead and about 30 wounded. They said the ancient monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site whose construction began in 1051 and continued into the 19th century, sustained a direct hit.
The sprawling site includes several churches and monasteries, some of them connected by a network of caves stretching about 600 meters. Its churches and other buildings stand on the right bank of the Dnipro River and are considered a historic and cultural symbol of Ukraine, as well as a pilgrimage site for believers.
Flames were seen raging inside the ancient complex. Epiphanius I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said the roof of the Dormition Cathedral had caught fire. He condemned the attack and described it as another Russian crime “against humanity, against history and against Christianity.”
“What else must the anti-Christ Kremlin do for the world to understand that decisive action must be taken to end Russian terror against Ukraine and against the very values of peace?” he said in a statement.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the strike caused extensive damage at the monastery and claimed it had been “a deliberate decision” by Moscow. He called it a strike “at the heart of one of Christianity’s greatest shrines,” adding: “This is a brutal attack against our people and against our heritage. This is the true face of Russian Orthodox values.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also condemned the Russian attack Monday morning, particularly the damage to the Christian site.
“This is one of Russia’s gravest crimes against Christian culture,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky renewed his call for the West to increase sanctions and pressure on Moscow. Ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit of industrialized nations, set to begin Monday in France with Trump also attending, Zelensky said: “It is very important that there be a response from the G7 countries, and that it be decisive and significant: more pressure on the aggressor and more assistance for Ukraine’s air defense systems, especially anti-missile capabilities.”
In Kyiv, where large numbers of residents spent the night in shelters and underground metro stations as they have during previous major nighttime barrages, authorities said several residential towers were hit, including a 25-story building. Damage to infrastructure left 140,000 residents without electricity, officials said.
Strikes were also reported in several other cities across Ukraine. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, authorities said five rescue workers who had been called to the scene of a strike were killed in a second hit at the same location. Five others were wounded at that scene, while three more people were reported wounded in Sumy.
Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, said Monday that it had launched a “massive strike” at what it described as military industry targets and air bases in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed all the strikes were successful.
The massive barrage joins a long series of major Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities throughout the war, now deep into its fifth year with no end in sight.
Trump promoted ceasefire efforts in March after returning to the White House last year, but in practice abandoned those efforts after repeated failures to achieve a breakthrough. The war with Iran is now at the top of the agenda for him and his aides.
The attack came hours after Trump spoke Sunday with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, in calls held on Trump’s 80th birthday. Zelensky has long urged Putin to meet him directly to advance negotiations, but Putin has refused and has also rejected Kyiv’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire that would allow talks on a permanent agreement.
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Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky
(Photo: Reuters, AP, Olivier MATTHYS / POOL / AFP Alex Brandon, AP)
Ukraine, meanwhile, has been launching more and more drone attacks deep inside Russian territory in recent months, hitting a range of oil and energy facilities.
Zelensky has acknowledged that the goal of the attacks is not only to disrupt Russia’s oil industry, which brings billions into the Kremlin’s coffers and helps finance the war, but also to make Russians feel the consequences of the war firsthand and pressure their leader to end it.
Recent Ukrainian strikes have caused fuel shortages in several Russian regions, particularly in occupied Ukrainian territories annexed by Moscow. The crisis has been especially visible in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, as Kyiv systematically targets supply routes to the peninsula.
Monday morning brought reports of additional strikes on two bridges leading to Crimea. At the same time, authorities in the city of Tula, an industrial region south of Moscow, reported three people killed and three others wounded in a drone attack there.