Russian air assault strikes Kyiv monastery, as EU opens long-stalled accession talks with Ukraine

Overnight assault on the capital

At least 10 people were injured in a large-scale Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, according to city authorities. Tymur Tkatschenko, head of the capital's military administration, reported that the historic Kyiv Cave Monastery (Pechersk Lavra) was directly hit and caught fire, with images on social media showing flames on the roof of the Dormition Cathedral. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a high-rise residential building was also ablaze and 140,000 residents were temporarily without electricity after overhead power lines were damaged. Debris from intercepted drones sparked additional fires involving houses and cars across multiple districts. The Ukrainian Air Force warned that further drone attacks were ongoing.

According to operational information, there is serious damage on the grounds of the Cave Monastery.

Civilian toll beyond Kyiv

Russian strikes struck other regions as well. In Kharkiv, a drone hit the city's art museum, wounding at least four people including a one-month-old baby girl, Ukrainian officials said. Separately, a 73-year-old woman was killed and four elderly passengers injured when a drone targeted a civilian car near Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia region. In Dnipro, a 22-year-old man died in hospital on Sunday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack on 2 June, bringing the total death toll from that strike to 17; a four-story residential building had collapsed at the time.

A week of intense aerial attacks

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared the cumulative figures for the past week: Russia launched 1,920 attack drones, 1,790 guided aerial bombs, and 17 missiles of various types against Ukrainian cities, towns, and civilian infrastructure. The tempo of nightly barrages has remained relentless, with emergency services stretched across the country.

We are preparing meetings with partners to strengthen our defense against this Russian terror.

Diplomatic push and EU accession milestone

As the attacks continued, diplomatic activity accelerated. Zelenskyy spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump on Sunday, congratulating him on his 80th birthday and discussing measures that could contribute to peace. They agreed to meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, France. Meanwhile, the European Union formally opened the first negotiating chapter of accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday. The chapter covers the judiciary, fundamental rights, and security. The process had been stalled since June 2024, when Hungary's then prime minister Viktor Orbán vetoed the opening; Orbán was voted out in April 2026, clearing the path for Monday's step.

Military frontlines and logistics

On the ground, the Ukrainian military reported localized Russian advances near Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, according to the Deepstate military blog linked to Ukrainian forces. In the south, Ukrainian marines claimed to have pushed Russian occupiers off a number of islands in the Dnipro River delta between Kherson and Oleshky and to have cut their supply lines. Separately, Ukrainian defence officials said Russian forces were adapting their logistics in the occupied south, increasingly using civilian cars with trailers to move ammunition and small vehicles on secondary roads to transport personnel, in an attempt to evade Ukrainian strikes on main supply routes.

Poland responded to the overnight barrage by scrambling fighter jets and placing ground-based air defence systems on high alert as a precaution to protect its airspace, especially in border areas near Ukraine.