One of Russia’s Largest Recent Missile-and-Drone Barrages Hits Ukraine, Damages Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

Russia launched one of its largest recent missile-and-drone attacks on Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials said Monday, striking Kyiv and several other regions, killing civilians and emergency workers, and setting fire to the Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the country’s most important religious and cultural sites.

Preliminary Ukrainian Air Force figures reported by Ukrainian media said Russia fired 70 missiles and 611 drones in the barrage from June 14 to June 15. Ukrainian officials said strikes hit Kyiv, the surrounding Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Mykolaiv. The attack fit a pattern seen repeatedly in the war, with combined missile-and-drone barrages used to try to stretch Ukraine’s air defenses.

In Kyiv, the death toll was still changing in the hours after the strikes. Ukrainian officials reported at least four people killed and more than 20 injured in the capital. President Volodymyr Zelensky said four people were killed and 28 injured. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said four people were killed and 23 injured. He said Kyiv had taken the brunt of the attack and that civilian infrastructure suffered major damage. Reuters, citing Mayor Vitali Klitschko, reported that about 140,000 residents were without electricity in early reports after the strikes.

In Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said a second strike hit rescuers responding to an earlier attack on a business site, killing five emergency workers and injuring nine other people. The casualties there were reported by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko and Zelensky. Zelensky also said strikes hit Dnipro, including a railway station, a college and businesses. Other regions were also hit, Ukrainian officials said, though early reporting focused on the heavy damage in Kyiv and Kharkiv.

The fire at the Lavra added symbolic weight to the overnight assault. Ukrainian emergency officials said the Dormition, or Uspensky, Cathedral caught fire after what officials described as a strike on the monastery complex, with the blaze affecting the cathedral roof before firefighters put it out. The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a UNESCO World Heritage monastery founded in the 11th century and is one of Ukraine’s most significant Christian sites. Damage there carries importance well beyond the immediate strike because of the complex’s central place in the country’s religious and cultural history.

Zelensky linked the attack to the opening Monday of the Group of Seven summit in Évian, France, and called for a stronger international response and more air-defense assistance, especially anti-ballistic systems. His appeal came as Ukrainian authorities were still assessing casualties and damage across the country after one of the biggest recent barrages reported by Kyiv. No immediate Russian official comment on the attack was prominent in major international reporting available in the hours after the strikes.