Kyiv: Nine people have been killed after a wave of Russian air attacks on Ukraine, authorities said on Monday, urging residents to take shelter.
The fresh strikes came 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 more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.
Four people were killed in attacks on Kyiv, while five rescue workers died battling a blaze ignited by a Russian strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said.
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 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.
As towering flames rose over the monastery, residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and left more than 100 wounded.
