A 1,000-year-old monastery that symbolizes Ukraine’s spiritual and cultural heritage was badly damaged on Monday in a major attack by Russia that killed 10 people nationwide, hours after US President Donald Trump spoke to the leaders of both countries about ending the war.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he had discussed with Trump efforts to bring an end to the four-year-old conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France starting on Monday. The US president also told Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a call on Sunday that it was vital to end the war.

Zelensky offers Putin talks

Zelensky, speaking at the damaged monastery in Kyiv, said he had offered to meet Putin at the G7 summit in France this week or in the United States.

“We gave message that we are ready to meet with Putin during (the) G7, because Trump is there and Macron is there, so Europeans plus America. This is a good, I think, very good opportunity to meet all together,” Zelensky told reporters in English.

“Europe and the United States were agreed and Russia demonstrated again that…they are not ready to speak,” he said.

Writing later on Telegram, Zelensky said he had suggested to Trump in a telephone conversation on Sunday that he and the Russian president meet in the United States.

“Yesterday we discussed with President Trump that such a meeting could be organized in the US in a format that would make it much harder for Putin to refuse, at least to refuse President Trump,” he said.

“We will see what comes of this. If Russia rejects this chance too, more pressure will be needed.”

Monastery attack draws condemnation

The damage to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, drew international condemnation. France’s foreign minister said the attack was akin to bombing Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Zelensky, who visited the monastery to inspect the damage, said the attack was “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date.”

“This is an attack on our history,” he told reporters at the monastery, where rescuers were assessing the impact on the building’s paintings and frescoes. “Of course, everything will be restored.”

The blaze caused extensive damage to the roof of the Dormition Cathedral, the main church at the monastery site, but its structure and walls remained standing and much of the interior appeared intact.

Russia denied striking the monastery, calling the allegations “a crude fake,” and said instead it had been damaged by a US-made Patriot air defense missile, which Ukraine uses to protect its cities.

However, Ukraine’s SBU security service said it had recovered fragments of a Geran-2 drone, a Russian kamikaze drone, at the attack site and posted images of the debris. Reuters could not verify the information independently.

Ukraine seeks more air defenses

At least 10 people were killed in Russia’s overnight attack on Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Monday.

Four people were killed and 34 were injured in the overnight strikes on Kyiv, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko later said a fifth person had died in hospital from injuries sustained in the attack.

A Russian strike on Kharkiv killed four emergency service rescuers and a municipal official and injured at least five people, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had launched 70 missiles and 611 drones overnight and that its air defenses had shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones of various types.

In recent months, Ukraine has appealed to Western allies to increase supplies of Patriot air defense missiles, which are its only effective means of stopping Russian ballistic missiles.

Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Ukraine shot down only 15 of the 34 ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight.

“Ballistic missiles remain a problem for us,” Ihnat said on national television.

Zelensky said that his priority at the G7 meeting would be securing more air defense systems to defend against Russian strikes.

“We will have a meeting with Europeans and also with President Trump; we will speak with him about how to push Putin to stop this war,” he said.