Rescue staff attempt to put out a fireplace on the Dormition Cathedral of thousand-year-old Monastery of Caves, often known as Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, following a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
KYIV, Ukraine — A big-scale Russian assault on Ukraine killed 5 rescuers in Kharkiv and wounded no less than 20 individuals within the capital Kyiv on Monday as strikes set residence buildings ablaze and sparked a fireplace at one of many nation’s most vital non secular landmarks.
The rescuers had been killed in Kharkiv by a second Russian strike as they fought a blaze brought on by an earlier assault, Inside Minister Ihor Klymenko mentioned. At the least 5 different emergency staff had been wounded.
A sequence of highly effective explosions echoed throughout Kyiv, with a wave of ballistic missiles adopted by Shahed drones as many individuals sought shelter underground and officers urged residents to take cowl.
“Kyiv is under the main strike. There is significant destruction of civilian infrastructure,” Klymenko mentioned.
Twenty individuals, together with a toddler, sought medical assist in the capital, mentioned Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv Metropolis Army Administration.
5 strikes hit civilian websites within the metropolis’s Shevchenkivskyi district in lower than half-hour, he mentioned, together with a 25-story residence constructing, whereas a market and a grocery retailer caught fireplace. Within the Obolonskyi district, a nine-story residential constructing took a direct hit.
Tkachenko accused Russia of hanging residence blocks on function.
“This is their deliberate decision,” he mentioned.
Injury on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a monastic advanced, was substantial and a severe fireplace had damaged out, mentioned Tkachenko, who accused Russia of intentionally hanging “the heart of one of the largest Christian shrines.”
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fireplace throughout the in a single day assault, mentioned Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He condemned the strike as one other Russian crime “against humanity, against history, against Christianity” and appealed for prayers to save lots of the location.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, often known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a sprawling advanced of monasteries and church buildings, together with some underground, constructed from the eleventh to the nineteenth century. Among the church buildings on the UNESCO-listed World Heritage website are related by a labyrinthine advanced of caves spanning greater than 600 meters (2,000 ft).
The cathedral, church buildings and different buildings overlook the correct financial institution of the Dnipro River and have been a pilgrimage website for hundreds of years.
