AT LEAST 11 people were killed and 53 wounded in strikes on Ukraine on Sunday night and early today that set fire to an 11th-century Unesco-listed monastery in the capital Kiev.

The attacks on Kiev and Kharkiv came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin spoke separately with their US counterpart Donald Trump on Sunday.

The war in Ukraine is set to feature in G7 talks taking place in France on Tuesday.

Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones in the overnight attack, primarily targeting Kiev.

Ukraine’s air force said its defences had intercepted or suppressed 632 aerial targets, including 50 missiles and 582 drones.

Five people were killed in Kiev and at least 30 others were wounded, including two young children.

Strikes hit residential buildings, a market and a grocery store in two districts of the capital within 30 minutes.

The bombardment also damaged the Pechersk Lavra — also known as the Monastery of the Caves — a sprawling complex of monasteries and churches built between the 11th and 19th centuries.

The roof of the complex’s Dormition Cathedral caught fire.

Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, condemned the strike as a Russian crime “against humanity, against history, against Christianity.”

Mr Zelensky said the damage had been caused by two Russian drones, calling it Russia’s “biggest crime yet against Christian culture.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot likened the attack to the bombing of Notre Dame.

But Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed the complex had been struck by a US-made Ukrainian Patriot missile that may have veered off course because its shelf life had expired.

It said its strikes had targeted defence and industrial facilities.

Mr Zelensky called on G7 nations to respond with “more pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine’s air defence.”