{"id":33164,"date":"2026-06-15T11:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=33164"},"modified":"2026-06-15T11:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T10:07:16","slug":"russian-strikes-kill-nine-damage-kyiv-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/russian-strikes-kill-nine-damage-kyiv-cathedral\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Strikes Kill Nine, Damage Kyiv Cathedral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>KYIV, Ukraine <\/strong>\u2014 A wave of Russian missile and drone strikes killed nine people and injured dozens across Ukraine on Monday, igniting fires that engulfed a historic cathedral in Kyiv and leaving much of the capital without electricity, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Four people died in Kyiv after residential buildings were hit, while five rescue workers were killed in Kharkiv as they tried to extinguish flames sparked by another strike. The Dormition Cathedral, part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra UNESCO World Heritage Site, was set ablaze and suffered significant damage. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko condemned the attack as \u201ca brutal assault on our people and our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said more than 140,000 residents were left without power. At least 23 people were wounded in Kyiv, and five more in Kharkiv. Air raid sirens sounded across most of Ukraine throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha vowed to initiate urgent procedures with UNESCO and other international bodies, calling the strike \u201cstate barbarism.\u201d The cathedral, originally built in the 11th century, was nearly destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in the late 20th century in Ukrainian Baroque style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Russian officials reported that a Ukrainian drone attack in the city of Tula, south of Moscow, killed three people and wounded three others, including a one-year-old child. Fires broke out in residential areas and vehicles were destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On social media, images of the burning cathedral drew outrage and sorrow. Many Ukrainians described the attack as an attempt to erase cultural identity, while international users expressed solidarity, sharing hashtags such as <strong>#StandWithUkraine<\/strong> and <strong>#ProtectHeritage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legal experts and human rights groups said the strikes could amount to war crimes under international law, given the targeting of cultural and civilian sites. UNESCO officials noted that deliberate attacks on heritage sites violate conventions protecting cultural property during armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities in Kyiv compared the destruction to earlier strikes on cultural landmarks, including the Mariupol Drama Theatre in 2022, where hundreds were killed. Similar cases of cultural devastation have been documented in Syria and Iraq, where historic sites were damaged or destroyed during conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The attacks come days before a G7 summit in France, where the war in Ukraine is expected to dominate discussions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about efforts to end the conflict, which began with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KYIV, Ukraine \u2014 A wave of Russian missile and drone strikes killed nine people and injured dozens across Ukraine on Monday, igniting fires that engulfed a historic cathedral in Kyiv and leaving much of the capital without electricity, officials said. Four people died in Kyiv after residential buildings were hit, while five rescue workers were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":33165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2096,776,4,5,458,1138],"tags":[2025,19110,19106,19111,19109,19105,19108,4440,19107,3663],"class_list":["post-33164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-educational","category-featured","category-international","category-legal","category-politics","tag-civilian-casualties","tag-cultural-destruction","tag-dormition-cathedral","tag-g7-summit","tag-kharkiv-attack","tag-kyiv-strikes","tag-russian-invasion","tag-social-media-backlash","tag-unesco-heritage","tag-war-crimes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot_15-6-2026_94851_www.bbc_.com_.jpeg?fit=920%2C461&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33164"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33184,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33164\/revisions\/33184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}