Russian strikes kill at least nine and set fire to Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

At least nine people were killed and several others injured in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine during which a major religious landmark in Kyiv caught fire.

Overnight, Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones at Ukraine.

Five people were killed in attacks on Ukraine’s capital, while five rescue workers died trying to put out a fire caused by a Russian strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv. Another nine were injured. They became victims of a double strike – a tactic of Russian troops to hit the location of the first strike when emergency services arrived there.

Head of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Andriy Danyk reported that Russians killed firefighters from the 6th State Fire and Rescue Unit of Kharkiv:

• Dmytro Boiko, squad commander and chief master sergeant of the civil protection service
• Danylo Tishchenko, firefighter-rescuer and sergeant of the civil protection service
• Serhii Makovetskyi, firefighter-rescuer and sergeant of the civil protection service
• Vadym Zinchenko, driver and master sergeant of the civil protection service.

 

The city suffered extensive destruction, including the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral in the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Anti-Corruption Court building and the Mystetskyi Arsenal, a museum and art exhibition complex, among other sites. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called it a “brutal assault on our people and our heritage”.

The Mystetskyi Arsenal

According to the head of state, it was no coincidence that the Russians launched a massive strike on Ukraine right after Putin congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump on his birthday.

“He [Accused of a war crime by the ICC, Vladimir Putin], as always, absolutely cynically congratulated the president of the United States, and after that, launched a massive strike on Ukraine. I think it is no coincidence that for several days they were not only stockpiling missiles – we saw that they had the necessary forces – they were waiting so as not to do this before congratulating President Trump,” cites President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, news agency Ukrinform as saying, emphasised.

“We will be urgently initiating all relevant procedures within UNESCO and all other international mechanisms, demanding immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism,” Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Andrii Sybiha said in a statement on X. The Russian strike occurred during an anniversary year: the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra marks 975 years since its first mention.

“We are currently dealing with Russian terrorists who have already surpassed ISIS in their crimes against cultural heritage. Only Russian scum, who hold nothing sacred, could deliberately damage the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a unique UNESCO World Heritage site under special protection,” Sybiha stated, adding the Kremlin’s leader, Vladimir Putin, “has forever inscribed his name on the list of the worst barbarians in history”.

Russia has also struck the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studios in Kyiv, damaging several buildings and destroying Ukraine’s largest and oldest costume collection. Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy of Ukraine, reported that the studio housed around 100,000 costumes and three million items of clothing and wardrobe materials. Other studio buildings and facilities were also damaged in this area.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that the cathedral on the grounds of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra was struck not by Russian forces, but by a missile from a Patriot air defence system. The Russian occupiers claimed that “Western countries may have supplied the Kyiv regime with missiles whose service life had expired”.

The Russian Ministry of Defence also said that the Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Studios, which housed 100,000 costumes, supposedly housed a “facility for the production and preparation of medium- and long-range UAVs”.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) stated that Russia struck the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra with a Geran-2 drone, which is the Russian version of the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drone and released confirmation photos. The SSU officers discovered fragments of the hull and engine of the Russian kamikaze drone, which struck the St. Stephen’s side altar of the Dormition Cathedral within the Lavra complex.

 

An inspection of the Russian drone debris revealed that some of its components were manufactured in Russia, specifically within the Alabuga special economic zone. This was evidenced by corresponding markings found on the fragments of the Russian drone.

Drone and missile strikes set fire to buildings and cars and left more than 140,000 people in Ukraine’s capital without electricity, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Most of Ukraine was under air raid warnings on Monday.

In Kyiv, 35 injured, including a child and a pregnant woman. 

The Sumy Oblast Prosecutor’s Office reported that Russians killed a 69-year-old woman and injured four others, including an 11-year-old girl, her 38-year-old mother and her 63-year-old grandmother, with a drone strike in the Shostka District, within the territory of the Seredyna-Buda “hromada,” a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements, at around 2 a.m. on 15 June. 

At around 5 a.m., the Russian forces struck a civilian car within the territory of the Hlukhiv community, injuring the 71-year-old driver.

The Kherson City Military Administration and Oleksandr Prokudin, head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, reported that Russians killed one person and injured two others in a Russian strike on the city of Kherson

“At around 08:00, Russian occupiers bombarded Kherson’s Korabelnyi district. As a result of the enemy attack, a 66-year-old man sustained fatal injuries,” Prokudin said and added that a 67-year-old woman and an 80-year-old woman were also taken to the hospital after suffering blast injuries.

Russia launched strikes on the city of Dnipro overnight, injuring one person and destroying part of a college building, Oleksandr Hanzha, Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration, reported. He also said that damage to premises belonging to a business, where a fire broke out. The blast wave also shattered windows at a school and a cultural institution.

Aftermath of the Russian strike in Dnipro

Following another large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that G7 leaders will discuss increasing pressure on Russia to end the war during the summit in France. She added that Europe and the Ukrainian people want peace, while Russia has once again demonstrated that it is interested only in violence and destruction.

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