Ukraine has come under a massive Russian missile and drone attack with waves of explosions echoing through the capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Monday morning as air raids killed at least five people across the country.<\/p>\n
Among targets hit in the sustained wave of strikes were the city\u2019s historic Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine\u2019s most significant religious sites, as well as residential buildings across the city.<\/p>\n
Footage from the Perchersk Lavra, a Unesco world heritage site, showed towering flames licking up towards its domes. Six people were reported injured.<\/p>\n
\u201c[T]he roof of one of the holiest places in the Christian world \u2013 the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra \u2013 is burning,\u201d Metropoliton Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister, posted a picture of the monastery building in flames and wrote: \u201cA brutal assault on our people \u200cand our heritage. This is the true face of Russia\u2019s Orthodox values.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask for prayers for the salvation of the shrine from destruction. Another Russian crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damage was reported at 16 locations across the capital amid the sound of interceptor launches and explosions that shook windows in the city centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew launches targeting the capital keep being recorded,\u201d said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv\u2019s military administration, urging people to remain in shelters as at least 10 people were reported injured.<\/p>\n
Attacks across Ukraine came after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had warned that Moscow would target Ukraine with \u201csystemic\u201d strikes, and amid evidence of mounting battlefield setbacks<\/a> for Russia.<\/p>\n Smoke rises from a fire during the Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv. Photograph: Chris McGrath\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The strikes follow a period of relative quiet in Kyiv in recent days as Moscow prepared its drone and missile forces for the latest in a recent series of massive air attacks.<\/p>\n Outside the capital, at least five people were killed in the city of Kharkiv in what appeared to be a double tap strike targeting emergency responders.<\/p>\n Poland, an EU and Nato member, scrambled fighter jets and put ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance on a state of readiness, the Polish armed forces said on Monday morning.<\/p>\n