Russian forces launched 611 long-range drones and 70 missiles at Ukraine on Saturday night in one of the largest attacks of the war, setting fire to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in the 11th century. At least four people were killed in Kyiv and more than 20 were wounded across the city.
The roof of the Dormition Cathedral at the Lavra compound caught fire after a direct strike on the monastery’s precinct in the Pechersk district of the capital. Firefighters worked through the night to bring the blaze under control as thick smoke rose over one of Christianity’s oldest monastic sites. Rescuers described a chaotic night in which monastery staff and volunteers worked alongside emergency services to protect icons and artefacts from the advancing fire.
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is one of the most significant religious and cultural sites in the Orthodox world. It was established in 1051 and contains a network of underground caves, churches and catacombs that have been a pilgrimage destination for centuries. The complex has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1990.
The attack also left 140,000 residents of Kyiv without electricity after strikes damaged power infrastructure across the city. Emergency crews were still working to restore supply to several districts by Monday morning. The scale of the attack — combining ballistic missiles with a mass drone assault — overwhelmed some of Ukraine’s air defence systems, which were unable to intercept every incoming projectile.
The overnight attack came days before Zelensky is scheduled to attend the G7 summit in Évian, France, where he plans to push allied governments for more air defence weapons. Ukrainian officials said the targeting of the Lavra was deliberate and described it as part of a pattern of Russian strikes against cultural and religious sites they said was intended to destroy the foundations of Ukrainian identity.
Moscow did not comment specifically on the Lavra strike but described the overall operation as a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. Russia has consistently framed its mass strikes as targeting military and energy infrastructure, though many of its strikes have hit civilian areas and heritage sites.
Saturday’s attack was separate from an earlier wave that struck the Kharkiv Art Museum, also on Saturday, where a drone strike gutted the building and forced volunteers and staff to form human chains to pass artworks out of the burning structure before the fire could destroy them. The Kyiv Independent reported that the combined destruction of both sites in a single night drew condemnation from UNESCO and several European governments who called on Russia to halt attacks on protected cultural heritage.
