{"id":536938,"date":"2026-06-15T22:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536938\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T22:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:21:18","slug":"ten-killed-and-1000-year-old-monastery-damaged-in-latest-russian-attacks-on-ukraine-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/536938\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten killed and 1,000-year-old monastery damaged in latest Russian attacks on Ukraine \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine<\/a>\u2019s spiritual and cultural heritage was badly damaged on Monday in a major attack by Russia<\/a> \u200cthat killed 10 people nationwide, hours after US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> spoke to the leaders of both countries about ending the war.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> said on Sunday he had discussed with Trump efforts to bring an end to the four-year-old conflict, ahead of a G7<\/a> meeting in \u200bFrance starting on Monday.<\/p>\n

Trump also told Russian leader Vladimir Putin<\/a> in a call on Sunday that it was vital to end the war. The damage to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a Unesco<\/a> World Heritage site founded in 1051, drew international condemnation. France\u2019s foreign minister said the attack was akin to bombing Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy, who visited the monastery to inspect the damage, said the attack was \u201cone of Russia\u2019s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an attack on our history,\u201d he \u200btold reporters at the monastery, where rescuers were assessing the impact on the building\u2019s paintings and frescoes. \u201cOf course, everything will be restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blaze caused extensive damage to the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, the main church at the monastery site, but its structure and walls remained standing, \u2060and much of the interior appeared intact.<\/p>\n

As flames leaped above the religious compound, Kyiv residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June, when drones and missiles \u200ckilled \u200cmore \u200bthan 20 people and wounded more than 100.<\/p>\n

Russia denied striking the monastery, calling the allegations \u201ca crude fake\u201d, and said instead it had been damaged by a US-made Patriot air defence missile, which Ukraine uses to protect its cities.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe roof of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was on fire during the strike. Photograph: Danylo Antoniuk\/AP <\/p>\n

However, Ukraine\u2019s SBU security service said it had recovered fragments of a Geran-2 drone, a Russian kamikaze drone, at the \u2060attack site and posted images of the debris, including a wing segment and a motor. \u200bReuters could not verify the information independently.<\/p>\n

Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, called on \u200bX for the international community to take \u201cdecisive action\u201d to put an end to \u201cthe Russian terror against Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Four people were killed and 34 were injured in the overnight strikes on Kyiv, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the \u200ccapital\u2019s military administration. Kyiv\u2019s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko later said a fifth person had died \u200bin hospital from their injuries.<\/p>\n

A Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city, killed four emergency service rescuers and a municipal official and injured at least five other people, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on \u2060Telegram. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The war in Ukraine has now gone on longer than first World WarOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster \u2060south of Moscow, killed three people and injured three others, \u200bincluding a one-year-old child, the regional governor said in a Telegram post.<\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately attacking civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s military said Russia had launched 70 missiles and 611 drones overnight and that its air defences had shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones of various types.<\/p>\n

In recent months, Ukraine has appealed to western allies to increase supplies of the Patriot air defence missiles, which are its only effective means to stop Russian ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

\"RescueRescue workers were killed after the strikes. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky\/AP <\/p>\n

Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said that Ukraine shot down only 15 of the 34 ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight. \u201cBallistic missiles remain a problem for us,\u201d Ihnat said on national television.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy, who was heading to France for the G7 meeting, said that he would appeal on Tuesday to allies there to quickly supply more air defences to defend against Russian strikes.<\/p>\n

European leaders condemned the attack on the Kyiv monastery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Unesco world heritage site, which for us in France is the \u200cequivalent of Notre Dame or St Denis \u2060being bombed,\u201d said French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot as he arrived for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.<\/p>\n

Much of the monastery\u2019s iconic Dormition Cathedral was previously rebuilt after it was blown up in 1941 during the second World War.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe monastery complex is a Unesco-listed site. Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP <\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the attack a \u201cwar crime\u201d. <\/p>\n

French president Emmanuel Macron said G7 leaders meeting in France would discuss how \u200cto end the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said he had requested an emergency meeting of the Unired Nations Security Council to discuss the attack. Before Sunday\u2019s conversation with Trump, Zelenskiy had proposed direct talks with Putin for a ceasefire solution involving the US and \u200bEurope \u2013 something Britain, Germany and France supported but Putin rebuffed. <\/p>\n

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to \u200bdeprive Moscow of revenues and hasten an end to the war. Overnight, Ukraine hit two bridges connecting Crimea with Russian-controlled areas.<\/p>\n

The Black Sea peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, is already grappling with a fuel crisis as a result of Ukrainian attacks that have disrupted supplies. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine\u2019s spiritual and cultural heritage was badly damaged on Monday in a major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,12391,6,11,12,15,16,5,550,7,8,2264,46403,384,2263,2267,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-536938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-g7","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-unesco","tag-united-states","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116756459408155061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}