Nine people were killed and several others wounded in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine, during which a major religious landmark in Kyiv was set on fire, officials said.
Four people died in attacks on Kyiv, while five rescuers lost their lives trying to extinguish a fire caused by a Russian strike on Kharkiv.
The 11th‑century Dormition Cathedral suffered extensive damage in what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described as a "brutal assault on our people and our heritage".
A Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian city of Tula killed three people and injured three others, including a one‑year‑old, officials said.
The strikes set fire to buildings and cars, leaving more than 140,000 people in Kyiv without electricity, Mayor Vitali Klitschko noted. Most of Ukraine was under air‑raid warnings on Monday.
The Kyiv attacks, which targeted several residential buildings, left at least 23 people wounded, while five were injured in Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian foreign affairs minister Andrii Sybiha urged the UN, UNESCO and other international bodies to respond urgently to the "state barbarism" represented by the Cathedral’s assault.
Poland placed fighter jets and ground‑based air defence systems on alert in a preventive response to the Russian strikes in Kyiv.
The assault comes ahead of a G7 meeting this week in France, where the war in Ukraine is set to be discussed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported he had spoken with former US President Donald Trump about efforts to end the conflict.
The conflict began in 2022 when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full‑scale invasion of Ukraine.
