Russia strikes Odesa’s historic Orthodox cathedral

Gulf Today Report

Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least two persons were killed and 22 others wounded in the early morning attack, officials said.

Four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city, including the historic Transfiguration Cathedral.

Latest strike on Odesa killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine's leader.

The 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral, the biggest Orthodox church in Odesa, lies within the UNESCO-protected historic city centre.

UNESCO condemned the "brazen" attack on Odesa, which hit several sites in the port city's World Heritage centre. The attack marked "an escalation of violence against (the) cultural heritage of Ukraine", said UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay.

The strike on Odesa, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea grain deal last week, came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarus counterpart for talks.

On the Black Sea in Odesa, locals looked in disbelief as the Transfiguration Cathedral — originally built in 1794 under imperial Russian rule — was hit.

Clergymen rescued icons from rubble inside the badly damaged shrine, which was demolished under Stalin in 1936 and rebuilt in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine said it had been "destroyed twice: by Stalin and Putin", denouncing the cathedral strike as a "war crime".

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed retaliation: "They will definitely feel this," he said.