Kyiv's UNESCO site St Sophia Cathedral damaged in Russian attack

A Russian overnight attack on Ukraine's capital has damaged Saint Sophia Cathedral, one of the most famous and cherished monuments in Ukraine and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Officials reported that a blast wave destroyed the cornice on the central apse of the cathedral, damaging the monument that embodies the country's spiritual and cultural heritage.
"Last night, the enemy struck at the very heart of our identity again," Ukraine's culture minister Mykola Tochytskyi said after the attack.
Tochytskyi said St Sophia Cathedral was "a holy place that has survived through centuries and symbolises the birth of our nationhood."
'The 11th-century cathedral is the soul of all Ukraine. Russia is raging its war not only against our cities, it is waging a war against our culture, memory and future," he emphasised.
The management of St Sophia Cathedral has informed UNESCO about the damage caused to the historic site by a recent Russian airstrike, according to Nelia Kukovalska, General Director of the National Reserve "Sophia of Kyiv".
Located in Kyiv's historic city centre, St Sophia was initially designed to rival the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
UNESCO describes it as "a unique monument of architecture and monumental art of the early 11th century, having the biggest preserved collection of mosaics and frescoes of that period."
Following Russia's full-scale invasion in early 2022, UNESCO has put St Sophia Cathedral and other historic sites in Ukraine on the UN danger list, saying, "faced with the risk of direct attack, these sites are also vulnerable to the shockwaves caused by the bombing."
Iran has executed nine members of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group who were detained after a deadly clash in 2018 with the country's Revolutionary Guard, state media reported on Tuesday.
According to the judiciary-run Mizan news agency, the death sentences had been upheld by Iran's Supreme Court and carried out by hanging.
The men were reportedly apprehended following clashes in western Iran, in which three members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and several IS fighters were killed.
Iranian authorities said they had recovered a substantial cache of weapons from the militants' hideout, including a machine gun and 50 grenades.
IS, which once held vast swathes of Iraq and Syria under a self-styled caliphate it declared in 2014, has since lost most of its territory following a campaign by US-led coalition forces. However, it has remained active, launching attacks across the region.
The group has also claimed responsibility for several attacks inside Iran, including a high-profile assault in June 2017 on the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which left at least 18 dead and over 50 injured. The 2018 clash with the Revolutionary Guard marked a spike in tensions between Iran and IS.
More recently, in 2024, IS claimed two suicide bombings targeting a memorial event for Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a US drone strike in 2020. That attack by the militant group resulted in the deaths of at least 94 people.
Analysts say IS could take advantage of the security vacuum in Syria, following the fall last year of Bashar al-Assad, to stage a comeback while its new leaders are still consolidating their control over the country and forming a national army.

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