At least three people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on central Russia’s Tula region, local authorities said Monday, as a large-scale overnight Russian barrage killed nine people across Ukraine and set fire to a historic monastery in the center of Kyiv.
Tula Governor Dmitry Milyayev said an additional three people were injured in the drone strike, including a one-year-old child. The attack damaged several homes and commercial properties across four villages on the western outskirts of the city of Tula.
Unconfirmed reports suggested that one of the targeted villages, Maslovo, is home to a U.S.-sanctioned developer of radio-electronic systems and military equipment.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 123 Ukrainian drones overnight across 12 regions, as well as annexed Crimea. Governor Milyayev said 16 of those drones were downed in the Tula region.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian aerial barrage killed at least nine people. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched more than 600 drones and 70 missiles in the overnight assault.
In Kyiv, the strikes damaged and ignited a fire at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a 10th-century monastery and UNESCO World Heritage site that holds prominent significance in Eastern Christianity. The roof of the complex’s Dormition Cathedral was left burning.
Kyiv’s Metropolitan Epiphanius denounced the incident as a “crime against humanity, against history, against Christianity.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry disputed the claim that it hit the monastery, asserting that its forces only targeted Ukrainian defense companies. The ministry claimed the buildings at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra were instead damaged and set on fire by an “outdated” American-made Patriot air-defense missile used by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike in a post on X, calling the hit on the Lavra “an attack on the Christian community and on the cultural heritage of humanity.”
“There can be no justification for this or for any other similar Russian attacks,” Zelensky wrote, adding that “more cooperation to stop Russia’s war and stronger protection to save lives” is urgently needed.
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