Six injured, Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery on fire as Ukraine repels air attacks, authorities say

KYIV – At least 13 people were injured and the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire following a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital, local authorities said, asking people to seek shelter.

The air attack damaged electricity lines and left 140,000 Kyiv residents without power, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram early on June 15, adding that houses and cars also caught fire after being hit by drone debris.

The city's central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery was hit by a direct strike and a high-rise apartment building was also on fire, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital's military administration, said in a separate Telegram post.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media platform X, with her post showing the monastery buildings in flames.

The city was under a massive missile attack with six people injured and a high-rise apartment building also on fire, according to Tkachenko.

Drones continue to attack Kyiv from different directions, Ukraine's Air Force said on Telegram, with explosions heard in the city, a Reuters witness said.

Neighbouring Poland, a European Union and a NATO member, has scrambled its fighter jets and put ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance on a state of readiness, Poland’s Armed Forces said in a post on X.

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of June 15.

Five emergency service rescuers were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, with attacks also in the region of Dnipro, according to social media posts by local authorities.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow from revenues to bring the end to the war closer.

The latest strikes come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on June 14 he had spoken to US President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year war, ahead of a G7 meeting in France.

Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 14 that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ready to help, the Kremlin said.

Progress towards a peace agreement in Ukraine has been slow, with US officials and mediators concentrating on the conflict in the Middle East. US and Iranian officials said on June 14 they had agreed on a peace framework to end their war, with the pact expected to be officially signed on June 19 in Switzerland. REUTERS