A cathedral at one of the oldest and holiest sites in Eastern Orthodox Christianity burned early on Monday as Russia bombarded Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, with missiles and drones.
Explosions shook buildings across Kyiv through the night in attacks that killed five people and injured 35 others, the authorities said. At least 14 residential buildings were damaged, and two street markets burned down. Russia has intensified missile attacks on the capital amid setbacks on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
More than four years into the war, Moscow’s strikes are taking a growing toll on Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
The church that was struck, the Dormition Cathedral, is part of the Pechersk monastery complex, which was founded in the 11th century. The monastery is important to the early history of both Ukraine and Russia, and its capture was an early objective of the Kremlin in the war.
Medieval catacombs hold the mummies of early Slavic saints, and church buildings or elements of them date back more than 1,000 years. The monastery is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The cathedral’s roof was engulfed in flames. Fire also rose beside the onionlike cupolas. A priest there, Father Rafail, said that the damage had most likely been caused by falling debris, adding that he believed the material had fallen on the church by accident.
However, he added, “Nothing happens by chance with God.”
In the overnight assault on Ukraine, Russian forces launched 70 missiles and 611 drones, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said. Kyiv was the main target, with 60 missiles directed at the capital, Mr. Zelensky said.
The attack came on the same day that Ukraine reached a milestone in its push to join the European Union. A meeting in Luxembourg on Monday was to be the official beginning of a process in which Ukraine must prove that it has made reforms needed to join the 27-nation bloc.
Ukrainians have been waiting for this moment since the revolution in 2014 that ousted the Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych, who had refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster put Ukraine at loggerheads with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, whose forces then annexed Crimea and began to stir up conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The strikes on Monday also came a day after Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky spoke with President Trump in separate phone calls on Mr. Trump’s 80th birthday.
The Kremlin described Mr. Putin’s call as “friendly and frank” and said that it had lasted about an hour. Mr. Zelensky said that Ukrainians had “one wish” for Mr. Trump: “that we may finally achieve peace, and achieve this success together with the U.S. and all our partners.”
The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has brought a halt to American-backed peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. But a preliminary agreement to end military operations against Tehran raises the possibility that the United States could re-engage in Ukraine negotiations.
When the strikes on Kyiv were over on Monday morning, priests with long gray beards, dressed in black cassocks, went out to assess the damage on the cathedral.
“I heard a loud explosion, and then debris began to fall,” said Father Rafail, who added that he had gotten out of bed at about 2 a.m., looked out a window and saw the golden domes on fire.
They were “burning for a long time,” he said.
The military governor of Kyiv, Timur Tkachenko, wrote on social media, “Damage on the territory of the monastery is significant, and there is a serious fire.”
A leader at the monastery, Bishop Avraamii, said online that priests and monks had managed to remove items of religious and historical value from the cathedral, including old icons.
In a statement, UNESCO condemned “attacks against cultural property” protected under international law.
Over the course of 24 hours, Russian strikes damaged not only the Dormition Cathedral but also the Art Arsenal exhibition center in Kyiv, the House of Organ and Chamber Music in Dnipro and the Kharkiv Art Museum. In addition, the entire costume collection at the Dovzhenko Film Studio in Kyiv was destroyed.
Most of the sites were damaged by falling debris — the scale of Russia’s strikes virtually guarantees such spillover.
All over Kyiv, pillars of black smoke rose into the sky on Monday and drifted along the horizon. Emergency workers and firefighters cleared away debris and rubble from ruined buildings.
Some sites where smoke was still rising remained closed to the public, suggesting that they were military or critical infrastructure targets.
The assault was the latest in a string of deadly attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks. Attacks on May 14 and on June 2 left more than 20 people dead in both instances.
Elsewhere in Ukraine on Monday, the authorities in the eastern city of Kharkiv said that five rescue personnel had been killed and at least five others injured in a secondary attack on a site damaged by drones or missiles earlier in the day. Such double strikes are usually intended to hit rescue workers, the Ukrainian authorities say.
Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.
