Russia’s 681 Missiles & Drones Smash UNESCO Monastery in Kyiv, Kill 9 Rescuers in Kharkiv
Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine with 70 missiles and 611 drones, severely damaging a UNESCO World Heritage monastery in Kyiv and killing at least five rescuers in a separate strike on Kharkiv.
A massive Russian attack with 70 missiles and 611 drones struck Ukraine overnight, killing at least nine people and causing severe damage to a UNESCO World Heritage monastery in Kyiv, while a separate strike killed five rescuers in Kharkiv [173043][172978].
The assault hit the Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO World Heritage site also known as the Monastery of the Caves, setting its roof on fire [172978][173043]. The strike also damaged the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Centre, which holds Ukraine’s largest costume collection and an archive of over 7,000 historical films [173043]. In Kyiv, at least four people died and 23 were wounded across 16 locations [173043]. Residents hid in underground bunkers as waves of explosions shook the capital [173043].
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, five rescuers were killed when a second Russian strike hit while they were fighting a fire from an earlier attack, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko [172978]. At least five other emergency workers were wounded [172978]. The attack also killed four people and wounded 10 others in the region, local officials reported [168534].
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones [173043]. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack on the cathedral “one of Russia’s gravest crimes against Christian culture to date” and urged G7 leaders to increase pressure on Moscow [173043]. France’s foreign ministry compared the attack to an attack on Notre Dame Cathedral, calling it an act of “cruelty” [173043]. Ukraine will urgently begin procedures with UNESCO and other international bodies to respond to what Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called “state barbarism” [173043].