In brief
A wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine today led to nine deaths, including four in Kyiv and five rescue workers in Kharkiv, and set the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral on fire. Ukrainian officials described the damage as a “brutal assault” on cultural heritage, prompting urgent calls to UNESCO for intervention. Simultaneously, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Tula resulted in further casualties, highlighting the escalation on both sides. The strikes challenged air‑defense efforts and underscored the international community’s need to address the war’s humanitarian and cultural toll.
A wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine today led to nine deaths, including four in Kyiv and five rescue workers in Kharkiv, and set the 11th‑century Dormition Cathedral on fire.
Four of those deaths occurred in Kyiv, while five rescue workers died while rescuing fires in northeastern Kharkiv, officials said. The 11th‑century dormition cathedral suffered significant damage in what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called a “brutal assault on our people and our heritage.”
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Tula, south of Moscow, killed three people and wounded three others, including a one‑year‑old, officials said.
Drone and missile strikes set fire to buildings and cars and left more than 140,000 people in Kyiv without electricity, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Most of Ukraine was on air‑raid warnings on Monday.
The strikes leave at least 23 people wounded in Kyiv and five in Kharkiv. The attacks come ahead of a G7 meeting in France where the war in Ukraine is on the agenda.
President Volodymyr Zelensy said he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about efforts to end the conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Andrii Sybiha demanded urgent action within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to respond to the “state barbarism.” Poland scrambled fighter jets and deployed air‑defence systems on alert in a “preventive” response to the Kyiv strike.
