Russian attacks targeting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities have killed at least 9 people and damaged a historic cathedral on the World Heritage list, while Russian authorities announced that 3 people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Violent Russian attack on Kyiv
Russia launched a large-scale attack using missiles and drones at dawn on Monday, which was described as one of the heaviest bombardments the country has seen in recent times.
The British newspaper "The Guardian" reported that explosions reverberated throughout the capital Kyiv, killing at least 9 people and injuring dozens in different parts of the country, as Ukraine's air defense systems, which fired their interceptor missiles, continued to work to counter the attacks.
In the details of the situation on the ground, the head of the military administration in Kyiv, Timur Tkachenko, announced that the city was subjected to five intense airstrikes in less than half an hour, targeting sites in the Shevchenkivsky neighborhood, including a 25-story building, in addition to the outbreak of fire in a market and a grocery store.
In the "Opolonsky" district, a direct hit hit a nine-story building, raising the extent of the observed damage to 16 different locations in central Kyiv, killing 4 people and injuring 23 others in the capital so far.
Outside the capital, Russian shelling killed at least five people in the eastern city of Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian sources, in what appeared to be a direct double attack targeting fire crews and emergency and rescue teams as they responded to the ground to provide assistance and extinguish fires caused by the first strikes.
Ukrainian sources said that one of the targets hit by the Russian strikes was the "Kyiv-Pechersk Lafra" complex, which is one of the most important religious and historical sites in Ukraine, where a UNESCO-listed cathedral inside the complex was directly shelled that injured six people.
The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphanius, commented on the "X" platform, saying that the roof of one of the holiest sites in Christendom was burning, stressing the extent of the severe damage to the religious site.
Ukrainian drone kills 3 people in Russian city of Tula
Three people were killed and others wounded in the Russian city of Tula, about 200 km (200 miles) south of Moscow, from a Ukrainian drone attack, while Russia launched a large-scale air attack on Kyiv on Monday.
Tula governor Dmitry Miliyev said on Telegram that a residential area of the city had been attacked by drones, adding, "Unfortunately, according to preliminary information, three people were killed and three others were injured, including a one-year-old child."
Putin's warnings mobilize Polish air defenses
According to news assessments, this widespread wave of shelling followed official warnings issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he confirmed that his forces would carry out "systematic" strikes against Ukraine, at a time when reports on the ground indicate increasing pressures and challenges facing Russian forces on the direct battlefronts.
Against the backdrop of this accelerated military escalation near its borders, Poland (a member of the European Union and NATO) announced on Monday morning that it had raised the level of military readiness of its armed forces, pushing fighter jets into the skies, and putting ground air defense systems and radar reconnaissance units on high alert to monitor developments.
Trump discusses ending war with Zelensky, Putin
On the political track, these strikes coincided with intensive diplomatic moves announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy;
He held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of the G7 summit in France this week, and the two sides discussed efforts to end the more than four-year-old war.
On the other hand, the Kremlin announced that US President Donald Trump had another phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, in which he informed him that ending the conflict in Ukraine is an important priority for the new US administration, stressing Washington's readiness to advance settlement efforts between the two parties.
Despite these bilateral contacts, the reality on the ground indicates that negotiations aimed at reaching a Eurasian peace agreement are proceeding very slowly, at a time when international mediators and US officials are focused on the rapid developments in the Middle East, especially after the announcement by US and Iranian officials on Sunday of reaching a framework for a peace agreement to end the war between the two countries, which will be officially signed in Switzerland next Friday.
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