KYIV--A 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine's spiritual and cultural heritage was badly damaged on Monday in a major attack by Russia that killed 10 people nationwide, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of both countries about ending the war.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had discussed with Trump efforts to bring an end to the four-year-old conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in Francestarting on Monday. The U.S. president also told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a call on Sunday that it was vital to end the war.
The damage to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, drew international condemnation. France's foreign minister said the attack was akin to bombing Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
Zelenskiy, who visited the monastery to inspect the damage, said the attack was one of Russia's most serious crimes against Christian culture to date. "This is an attack on our history," he told reporters at the monastery, where rescuers were assessing the impact on the building's paintings and frescoes. "Of course, everything will be restored."
The blaze caused extensive damage to the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, the main church at the monastery site, but its structure and walls remained standing and much of the interior appeared intact. As flames leaped above the religious compound, Kyiv residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June, when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and wounded more than 100.
Russia denied striking the monastery, calling the allegations "a crude fake", and said instead it had been damaged by a U.S.-made Patriot air defence missile, which Ukraine uses to protect its cities. However, Ukraine's SBU security service said it had recovered fragments of a Geran-2 drone, a Russian kamikaze drone, at the attack site and posted images of the debris. Reuters could not verify the information independently.
Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, called on X for the international community to take "decisive action" to end "the Russian terror against Ukraine."
Zelenskiy, writing on Telegram before leaving for the G7 meeting, said he had spoken to Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the most senior cleric in the Orthodox faith, and thanked him for his "moral position".
Four people were killed and 34 were injured in the overnight strikes on Kyiv, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital's military administration. Kyiv's Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko later said a fifth person had died in hospital from their injuries. A Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, killed four emergency service rescuers and a municipal official and injured at least five people, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
Later on Monday, local officials said Russian forces had launched new strikes on Kharkiv and the surrounding region. An attack on a village southwest of Kharkiv had injured seven people and prosecutors reported a drone had hit the Kharkiv zoo, killing 10 rabbits and injuring 15 others.
