At least nine people were killed, 140,000 households lost power, and the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral — the spiritual heart of Ukrainian Orthodoxy — was engulfed in flames during a fierce Russian drone and missile attack early on 31 March, Ukrainian officials reported.
The assault targeted Kyiv, Kharkiv, and multiple other cities and is considered one of the most destructive bombardments of cultural and civilian infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital in recent months.
In Kyiv, rescue crews fought a fire that broke out on the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves). Maksym Ostapenko, director general of the National Reserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said a Russian Shahed kamikaze drone struck the cathedral roof directly, igniting an intense blaze across roughly 800 square metres.
The monastery complex, perched on a hill overlooking the Dnipro River, is famous for its underground cave system that extends more than 600 metres and has been an important Christian pilgrimage site for centuries. Monks and rescue workers formed a human chain to evacuate priceless icons and relics before the fire was brought under control.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture reported that the attack also severely damaged the nearby Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Complex, destroying its main costume warehouse containing approximately 100,000 irreplaceable garments.
Metropolitan Epiphanius I, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the attack on the cathedral on social media platform X, calling it “a crime against humanity, against history, and against Christianity.” First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko argued the destruction revealed “the true face of Russian Orthodox values.”
Local monitoring channels reported Moscow launched dozens of Shahed kamikaze drones and at least 15 high-speed ballistic missiles at Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said around 20 people were wounded in the capital, including a child and a pregnant woman, after residential buildings were directly hit in the Obolonskyi, Solomianskyi, and Pecherskyi districts.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said a “double-tap” attack killed five State Emergency Service workers. First responders were targeted by a second drone strike while extinguishing a fire caused by a missile attack just minutes earlier. Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported at least five other rescue workers were wounded in the second explosion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin each held separate phone calls with U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend regarding the Ukraine war. Zelenskyy said the call discussed possible steps toward peace, while the Kremlin stated that Putin and Trump addressed peace negotiations involving the U.S. and Iran.
