More than 600 drones, 70 missiles fired as Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine; 9 killed

Russia launched one of its largest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, targeting Kyiv and several other regions overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The assault killed at least 9 people, injured dozens more and damaged a historic Unesco World Heritage site in the Ukrainian capital.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at least four people were killed and 28 injured in Kyiv. Another five people were reported dead and nine injured in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy said that Russia fired more than 60 missiles at Kyiv alone as part of a wider nationwide attack involving 70 missiles and 611 drones.

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Historic cathedral damaged

Among the sites affected was the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a Unesco-listed monastery complex that dates back to the 11th century. Zelenskyy said that the roof of the Dormition Cathedral caught fire following the strikes, although emergency services were able to extinguish the blaze.

Describing the incident as one of the biggest attacks on Christian cultural heritage during the war, Zelenskyy accused Russia of deliberately targeting the historic site.

“Due to the Russian strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Dormition Cathedral was burning,” he said in a statement on social media.

The Ukrainian leader also said that Russian strikes hit several other regions, including Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Mykolaiv. In Dnipro, attacks reportedly damaged a railway station, a college and industrial facilities.

One of the largest recent attacks

Ukraine's Air Force said that it intercepted or suppressed 50 of the 70 missiles and 582 of the 611 drones launched overnight. However, 20 ballistic missiles and 27 drones still struck targets across 42 locations.

According to Ukrainian military data, analysed by ABC News, the attack was the largest combined Russian strike since early June.

Zelenskyy urged the Group of Seven (G7) leaders, currently meeting for a summit, to increase pressure on Moscow and provide additional air defence systems, particularly anti-ballistic missile capabilities.

Russia denies targeting monastery

Russia's defence ministry described the operation as a “massive strike with high-precision weapons” aimed at military and defence-industrial facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

Moscow rejected accusations that it had deliberately struck the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. Russian officials claimed that a US-made Patriot air defence missile fired by Ukrainian forces had damaged the religious complex.

Russia said that Western countries had supplied Ukraine with ageing weapons and suggested that a malfunctioning Patriot missile could have caused the damage.

The latest attack highlights the continuing intensity of the war as both sides exchange long-range strikes while diplomatic efforts to end the conflict remain stalled.