Kyiv cathedral burns as heavy Russian air raids hit Ukraine

Russia has unleashed one of its heaviest air raids on Ukraine in weeks, killing rescuers in the northeast and setting a historic cathedral ablaze in Kyiv, even as diplomatic moves elsewhere raised faint hopes of wider de-escalation.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 70 missiles and 611 drones overnight, most of them at the capital, and that air defences shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones. Officials said at least four people were killed and about 30 injured in Kyiv, including children, as missiles and drone debris hit apartment blocks, markets and power lines, plunging some 140,000 residents into darkness.

The Dormition Cathedral in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, an 11th-century monastery complex and UNESCO World Heritage Site, caught fire after what local authorities said was a direct hit. Flames tore through the roof of the landmark overlooking the Dnipro River, with Metropolitan Epiphanius of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine calling the strike “a crime against humanity, history and Christianity”.

In Kharkiv, officials said Russia used a “double tap” tactic, launching further strikes on the site of an earlier attack and killing four emergency service workers and a municipal official. Additional attacks were reported in Dnipro and the Sumy region.

Moscow’s Ministry of Defence said its forces used long-range precision weapons and drones to hit military-industrial facilities, conscription offices and airbases, insisting their goals had been achieved.

Ukraine has stepped up its own long-range attacks, saying a drone attack killed three people in the Russian city of Tula and that bridges to occupied Crimea were hit in a bid to cut supply lines.

The latest escalation came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin held separate calls with United States President Donald Trump, and Washington and Tehran announced a framework to end their war – underscoring how efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine remain stalled more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.