A large-scale Russian attack on Monday killed at least 11 people across several Ukrainian cities, including five rescuers in Kharkiv, wounded at least 34 people in Kyiv and sparked fires at apartment buildings and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the rescuers in Kharkiv were killed by a second Russian strike as they fought a blaze caused by an earlier attack, and that at least five other emergency workers were wounded.
Powerful explosions echoed across Kyiv in a wave of ballistic missiles followed by Shahed drones, officials said, as many people sought shelter underground and authorities urged residents to take cover. "Kyiv is under the main strike. There is significant destruction of civilian infrastructure," Klymenko said.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said five strikes hit civilian sites in the city's Shevchenkivskyi district in less than 30 minutes, including a 25-story apartment building, and that a market and a grocery store caught fire. He said a nine-story residential building in the Obolonskyi district took a direct hit and accused Russia of striking apartment blocks on purpose.
Journalists across Kyiv witnessed residents running through the streets as projectiles were intercepted overhead and glowing debris fell across the darkened city, and officials said the assault killed five people and wounded 34 in the capital.
Ukraine's air force said Moscow fired 70 missiles and 611 drones, mainly targeting Kyiv, and that Ukrainian defenses had downed 50 of the missiles and 582 of the drones. Russia's military said it had carried out a "massive strike" on military sites in Kyiv as well as the Kharkiv and Dnipro regions but denied targeting the Lavra, saying it was hit by an outdated U.S. Patriot air defense missile.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more pressure on Moscow from G7 leaders and described the attack as "one of Russia's most serious crimes against Christian culture to date." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said G7 leaders will "discuss the next steps to increase pressure on Russia, bring (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to the negotiating table, and end this senseless killing." French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot compared the strike to a bombing of Notre Dame, and French President Emmanuel Macron said the attack only strengthened the determination of Ukraine's allies to pursue a ceasefire and work toward peace.
Damage at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was substantial, with the roof of the Dormition Cathedral set on fire, rescuers carefully cleaning up rubble on the monastery grounds and church bells ringing the Ukrainian anthem. A building in the capital's Mystetsky Arsenal National Art and Museum Complex also caught fire. The Dormition Cathedral was almost completely destroyed during World War II and was rebuilt in the 1990s, and the Russian Orthodox Church administered the site via its Ukrainian branch for centuries; monks serving in the Ukrainian branch of the Moscow church were evicted from the monastery in 2022-2023 after being accused of ties to Russia.
Ukrainian officials also reported a separate drone strike inside Russia that killed three people and wounded three others in the city of Tula, regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said.