[Source: Reuters]

A 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolises Ukraine’s spiritual and cultural heritage was ​badly damaged in a major attack by Russia that killed 10 people nationwide, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of both countries about ending the war.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said ‌on Sunday he had discussed with Trump efforts to bring an end to the four-year-old conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in Francestarting on Monday. The U.S. president also told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a call on Sunday that it was vital to end the war.

The damage to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, drew international condemnation. France’s foreign minister said the attack was akin to bombing Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

Zelenskiy, who visited the monastery to inspect the damage, said the attack was “one ​of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date.”

“This is an attack on our history,” he told reporters at the monastery, where rescuers were assessing the impact on the building’s paintings and frescoes. “Of course, ​everything will be restored.”

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 and much of the interior appeared intact.

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 killed ​more than 20 people and wounded more than 100.

Russia denied striking the monastery, calling the allegations “a crude fake”, and said instead it had been damaged by a U.S.-made Patriot air defence missile, which Ukraine uses to protect its cities.

However, ​Ukraine’s SBU security service said it had recovered fragments of a Geran-2 drone, a Russian kamikaze drone, at the attack site and posted images of the debris. Reuters could not verify the information independently.

‘KREMLIN ANTICHRIST’

Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, called on X for the international community to take “decisive action” to end “the Russian terror against Ukraine”.

Zelenskiy, writing on Telegram before leaving for the G7 meeting, said he had spoken to Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the ​most senior cleric in the Orthodox faith, and thanked him for his “moral position”.

Four people were killed and 34 were injured in the overnight strikes on Kyiv, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military ​administration. Kyiv’s Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko later said a fifth person had died in hospital from their injuries.

A Russian strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed four emergency service rescuers and a municipal official and injured at least five people, ‌Interior Minister Ihor ⁠Klymenko said on Telegram.

Later on Monday, local officials said Russian forces had launched new strikes on Kharkiv and the surrounding region.

An attack on a village southwest of Kharkiv had injured seven people and prosecutors reported a drone had hit the Kharkiv zoo, killing 10 rabbits and injuring 15 others.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial cluster south of Moscow, killed three people and injured three, including a 1-year-old child, the regional governor said in a Telegram post.

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

Ukraine’s 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.

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.

Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said that Ukraine shot down only 15 of the 34 ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight. “Ballistic missiles remain a problem for us,” ​Ihnat said on national television.

Zelenskiy said that he would appeal on Tuesday to G7 allies to quickly supply more air defences.

EUROPEAN CONDEMNATION

European leaders condemned the ​attack on the Kyiv monastery.

“This ⁠is a UNESCO world heritage site, which for us in France is the equivalent of Notre Dame or Saint Denis being bombed,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot as he arrived for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

Much of the monastery’s Dormition Cathedral was previously rebuilt after it was blown up in 1941 during World War Two.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the attack a “war crime.” French President Emmanuel Macron said G7 ⁠leaders meeting in ​France would discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had requested an emergency meeting ​of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the attack.

Before Sunday’s 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.

Zelenskiy said on Monday that he had offered to meet ​Putin at the G7 summit in France or in the U.S.