Russian Barrage Kills Rescuers in Kharkiv and Sets Kyiv's Ancient Lavra Ablaze

A massive overnight Russian assault on Ukraine killed five rescuers in the eastern city of Kharkiv and set fire to one of the country's most revered religious landmarks in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Monday, in one of the heaviest bombardments in months.

Ukraine's Air Force said Russia fired 70 missiles and 611 drones during the night, with the capital bearing the brunt of the onslaught while the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv were also struck. At least 20 people were wounded in Kyiv as strikes set apartment buildings ablaze and sent residents fleeing into shelters.

In Kharkiv, rescuers were killed by a follow-up strike as they battled a blaze ignited by an earlier attack. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Russian forces used a "double tap" tactic, launching four additional drone strikes on the site in the Kholodnohirskyi district after emergency crews had already arrived. Four emergency service workers and an employee of the Kharkiv City Council's emergency department were killed, while six rescuers and three civilians were injured — a pattern of targeting first responders that Ukraine has repeatedly condemned as a war crime.

In Kyiv, the roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fire during the barrage, said Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The cathedral sits within the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, a sprawling UNESCO World Heritage complex of churches and monasteries built between the 11th and 19th centuries, some of them connected by a labyrinth of underground caves stretching more than 600 meters. Epiphanius denounced the strike as another Russian crime "against humanity, against history, against Christianity" and appealed for prayers to save the site.

Firefighters worked through the early hours to keep the flames from spreading deeper into the centuries-old religious complex, one of the holiest sites in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and a powerful symbol of Ukrainian and Slavic heritage. Damage to the Lavra carried particular resonance after years of war that have battered Ukraine's cultural and spiritual landmarks.

Russia has not commented on the specific targets and has consistently denied deliberately striking civilians or cultural sites, insisting its forces aim only at military infrastructure. Ukrainian officials rejected that account, pointing to the timing of the second wave of drones in Kharkiv — launched only after rescuers had gathered at the scene — as evidence that emergency workers were knowingly put in the crosshairs.

The bombardment underscored that Russia's long-range strike campaign against Ukrainian cities has not eased, even as diplomatic activity over the broader conflict has intensified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government renewed its appeals to Western allies for additional air defenses, warning that Moscow's growing use of mass drone-and-missile salvos is designed to overwhelm the systems protecting civilians.