The main cathedral in Kyiv’s historic Pechersk Lavra monastery complex caught fire after Russia launched a major overnight missile attack on several Ukrainian cities, officials said on Monday, calling it the heaviest air assault on the capital in two weeks.

The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones. Citing preliminary data, it said air defences shot down 50 of the missiles and 582 of the drones.

At least nine people were killed.

The attack on the monastery

The strikes sparked a blaze on the roof of the capital’s historic Dormition Cathedral, located within the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X, calling the site a ‘priceless cultural landmark’.

She shared a video purportedly showing the top of the cathedral engulfed in flames.

Other visuals showed a gaping hole on one side of the church.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, accused Russia of deliberately striking ‘the heart of one of the largest Christian shrines’.

Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, denounced the attack as another Moscow ‘crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity’.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery was founded in 1051 and is a prominent symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history. It has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1990.

The monastery complex, adorned with golden domes, is home to a sprawling labyrinth of underground caves.

Russian attacks on Kharkiv

Meanwhile, air raid sirens echoed across much of Ukraine in the early hours of Monday as Russia launched its latest barrage.

Five rescue workers were killed in Kharkiv during firefighting operations, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said. He added that at least nine other people were wounded.

In Kyiv, residents heard a series of powerful explosions across the capital as they sought shelter underground.

“Kyiv is under the main strike. There is significant destruction of civilian infrastructure,” Klymenko said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said strikes were reported in three districts of Kyiv, with at least 23 people injured.

The strikes also damaged electricity lines, leaving about 140,000 Kyiv residents without power, according to city authorities.

Repelling Ukraine drones: Russia

Russia on Monday also reported a Ukrainian drone strike

in the city of Tula, around 200km (120 miles) south of Moscow.

Three people were killed and three others were injured in the attack, regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said in a statement.

Moscow was also fending off a drone attack overnight, its mayor said.

Both Ukraine and Russia deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in the war that has spanned over four years.

DW