A major Russian attack damaged some of Kyiv's most important cultural sites

Russia's wholesale onslaught of missiles and drones on ukrayina o'er the weekend damaged some of the nation's to the highest degree significant cultural institutions, in what officials condemned as a deliberate assault on Ukraine's history.

"This is a war against our culture, memory and identity," said Kyrylo Budanov, a top aide to Ukraine's president.

"For centuries, Moscow has tried to destroy everything that makes us Ukrainian."

Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna said it marked the "largest series of damages" to Kyiv's cultural institutions since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

Officials said Kyiv's National Art Museum and The National Philharmonic of Ukraine, both in the heart of Kyiv, were badly damaged, with many other historic buildings in the city centre also affected.

The National Chornobyl Museum, Kyiv Opera Theater, the Ukrainian House, the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium and Hinaus Gallery were caught in the intense aerial assault across the capital.

Ukraine's government headquarters — the Cabinet of Ministers — and its Foreign Ministry also sustained minor damage from the strikes.

The Interior Ministry said that more than 40 per cent of the items in the Chornobyl Museum's collection were "irrevocably lost."

"With today's strike, Russia attempted to destroy not only lives but also memory," the ministry said.

The museum had recently reopened after extensive renovations to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster. It has closed temporarily while damage assessments and recovery efforts are underway.

Rescuers and museum employees worked quickly to save artifacts after the strike and managed to recover significant items from storage facilities, including a painting by renowned Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko and the flag of Ukraine that was installed at the Chornobyl plant after Russian troops withdrew from the occupied site in 2022, the ministry said.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko described the Russian strike on the National Chornobyl Museum as a deliberate attack on history and truth, according to news agency Interfax-Ukraine.

The Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in the Kyiv region, next to the Chornobyl museum, was also hit in the weekend attacks, according to GeoConfirmed, a volunteer-run initiative that uses geolocation data to map global conflict zones.

The attacks marked one of the heaviest bombardments of the city since the start of the four-year war, firing an Oreshnik hypersonic missile near the capital.

It was only the third time that Russia has used the Oreshnik missile against Ukraine since the war began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Oreshnik, which has a range of several thousand kilometres, struck Bila Tserkva, a city of 200,000 people about 64 kilometres from the outskirts of Kyiv, said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A shopping mall was gutted by flames, dozens of residential buildings were damaged and several schools were hit, many in central Kyiv.

In total, Ukraine's air force said, Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones.

Moscow said it had used Oreshnik, Iskander, Kinzhal and Zircon missiles in retaliation for Kyiv's strikes on civilian targets in Russia. Ukraine says it does not target civilians.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the strikes targeted Ukrainian military command facilities, including sites used by land forces and military intelligence, as well as air bases and military-industrial sites.

Mala Opera House reported "significant damage" in the aftermath of the airstrikes. In a post on Instagram, the cultural and historical building is seen in disarray, with shattered windows and broken doors.

"This place is more than a building. This is the memory of our city, its art and its voice," Mala Opera House said in the post, calling for volunteers to help clean up the institution in the capital.

The intense aerial assault damaged buildings across Kyiv, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, according to local authorities.

Kyiv's Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature said its library, book depositories and most departments were wrecked.

"The difficult financial situation of the country's oldest literary institution has become even more complicated," it said.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for "strong and coordinated action" from the international community in response to Russia's attacks on civilian infrastructure.

"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is trying to intimidate Ukraine by attacking civilians and destroying residential buildings, museums, schools and critical infrastructure," Sybiha said in a post on X.

Senior Writer

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