Four people were killed while the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire, in the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, authorities said on Monday, urging residents to take shelter.

The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.

The central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a 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 X.

As towering flames rose over the monastery, residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and left more than 100 wounded.

Facts about the monastery

ITS HISTORY DATES BACK TO 11TH CENTURY

A grand complex with striking belltowers, resplendent churches, chapels, gates and seminary buildings, the Lavra was founded by monks near the Dnipro river in 1051.

The first historian of Ukraine, Nestor the Chronicler, lived and worked at the monastery. Over the next centuries, the monastery emerged as a leading spiritual centre of Kyivan Rus, where chroniclers, icon painters and physicians worked, fostering the development of education.

The complex grew to become the main sacred site of Orthodox Christianity in eastern Europe. A short drive from Kyiv’s bustling city centre, it continues to draw large numbers of worshippers and tourists.

SPRAWLING COMPLEX

The complex, whose name means “monastery of the caves”, occupies more than 20 hectares and has more than 100 buildings, housing several churches and chapels. Six ancient underground churches are located in the caves of the monastery. It also houses several museums.

CAVES

The monastery comprises a network of surface and underground churches dating from the 11th to the 19th centuries, set within a labyrinthine cave complex extending over 600 metres.

Home to monks for centuries, the caves were dug into Dnipro hills between 5 and 15 metres deep.

The bodies of monks rest within the monastery’s caves, including the first monk to inhabit the caves, St Anthony.

DORMITION CATHEDRAL SET ON FIRE

A Russian strike set fire to the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, the main cathedral of the monastery complex, Ukrainian officials said.

The cathedral, whose history also dates back to the 11th century, served as a necropolis for the medieval princes of Kyiv. It was also badly damaged during World War Two.

“This strike on the Lavra is an attack on the Christian community and on the cultural heritage of humanity,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the site would be fully restored.

Russia denied striking the cathedral, saying it had been damaged by a U.S.-made Patriot air defence missile.

Drones and missiles struck several high-rise apartment buildings and damaged electricity lines, leaving some 140,000 residents without power, according to Kyiv authorities.

Four people were killed and 23 injured, Tkachenko said.

“What more must the Kremlin Antichrist do for the world to realise that decisive action must be taken so that the Russian terror against Ukraine and the very principles of peace come to an end?” Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said on X.

Neighbouring Poland, an EU and NATO member, scrambled fighter jets on Monday against a possible airspace incursion, before recalling the alert and saying no sky violation had been recorded, its Armed Forces said in a post on X.

Ukraine would be “urgently initiating” procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to ensure “immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X in reference to the monastery attack, with Estonian foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, also condemning the Russian strikes.

ATTACKS ON UKRAINE’S REGIONS, CENTRAL RUSSIA

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of Monday and Ukrainian drones were being repelled over Russia as both countries continued to exchange strikes.

Five emergency service rescuers were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, with three people, including a child, wounded in Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.

Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately attacking civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow of revenues and hasten an end to the war.

On Monday, three people were killed and another three, including a one-year-old child, were injured in a drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster south of Moscow, the regional governor said in a Telegram post.

Ukraine also moved overnight to cut off the Black Sea Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 and already grappling with a fuel crisis, from further supplies by hitting two bridges connecting it to the Russia-controlled areas.

Before his conversation with Trump, Zelenskiy had proposed direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire solution involving the U.S. and Europe – something Britain, Germany and France supported but Putin rebuffed.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Trump told the Russian leader that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ready to help.

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