Russia fired a barrage of missiles at several major Ukrainian cities, setting Kyiv’s Dormition Cathedral on fire and killing nine people.

Five rescue workers were killed during firefighting operations in north-east Ukraine, after Russian strikes hit the city of Kharkiv, Igor Klymenko, the interior minister, said on Monday.

At least nine others were wounded, according to Mr Klymenko and Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian strikes claimed three lives south of Moscow.

The wave of attacks came after Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin on the phone on Sunday, on the US president’s 80th birthday. After the call, Mr Trump agreed to send his negotiating team back to Moscow despite talks being stalled for months.

Four people were killed in Kyiv as fire broke out on the grounds of the Unesco world heritage site Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the roof of its Dormition Cathedral was on fire.

Residents were seen running through the streets seeking shelter as projectiles were intercepted in the sky and glowing debris fell across the city.

More than a dozen fire trucks surrounded the cathedral with firefighters working to extinguish the blaze from the inside and from aerial platforms, an AFP journalist saw.

A gaping hole could be seen on one side of the church, with flames visible from the roof, which has been partially destroyed.

A building in the capital’s Mystetsky Arsenal National Art and Museum Complex also caught fire, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

Russian attacks damaged several buildings in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra complex in January, the ministry of culture reported at the time.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a monastery with emblematic golden domes, had made headlines in recent years after the expulsion of its monks, who were accused of having ties with Moscow.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine officially broke away from Russia in 2022 and two years later the Ukrainian government went so far as to ban the Ukraine branch of the Orthodox Church linked to Moscow.

Institutionally, the Russian Orthodox Church has stood behind Putin since he launched Russia’s offensive on Ukraine in 2022.

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the local military administration, condemned the “direct strike” on the site.

Kyiv’s Metropolitan Epiphanius also denounced the attack as a “crime against humanity, history and Christianity”.

At least 25 people were reported to have been wounded in the capital and 140,000 residents in the northern districts have been left without electricity.

The major city of Kharkiv, in the north-east, also came under missile attack.

“Five state emergency service rescuers were killed during firefighting operations as a result of a repeated Russian strike,” Igor Klymenko, the interior minister, said on Telegram. At least nine people were also injured.

Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said that Dnipro had also been targeted and two people were injured.

Oleg Grygorov, the head of the Sumy region, said three people had been wounded in the north-eastern district, including a child.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed three people and wounded three others in the Russian city of Tula, around 120 miles south of Moscow, Dmitry Milyaev, the regional governor, said on Monday.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and Putin both called Mr Trump on Sunday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky said on X that he had “discussed things that could help bring about peace now”, while his adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told the press he was pleased with a “quite substantive conversation about everything” between the leaders.

The Kremlin said that the conversation between Putin and Mr Trump focused on peace negotiations with the United States and Iran.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, with thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops killed.

Amid near-daily pummelling of its cities by Russian drones and missiles, Ukraine has in recent weeks stepped up its own aerial attacks, which it says mostly target Russia’s oil infrastructure to sap its profits that fund the war.

Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin adviser, told the press that “US presidential special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are currently closely involved in Iranian affairs, will return to Russia soon”.