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A Russian missile attack on Ukraine's southern port of Odesa has killed one person, injured 20 and severely damaged an Orthodox cathedral in the city centre, a UNESCO world heritage site, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Key points:
- Six residential buildings have been destroyed by the missile strikes on Odessa
- Russia's defence ministry says strikes were aimed where "terrorist attacks were being prepared" and blamed Ukrainian anti-aircraft measures for damage to the cathedral
- Russia has been targeting Ukrainian ports for the past week
"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," governor of the Odesa region Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.
He said the missile attacks also destroyed six houses and apartment buildings and hospitalised 14 people.
Mr Zelenskyy said the injured included four children aged between 11 and 17. Almost 50 buildings were damaged, 25 of them architectural monuments, and the Greek consulate was among the affected structures, he added.
"All these missiles target not just cities, villages or people, but humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture," Mr Zelenskyy said.
UNESCO world heritage cathedral badly damaged
Officials said the icon of the patroness of the city had been retrieved from the rubble of the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, or Transfiguration Cathedral. Mr Zelenskyy said it was hit by a Kh-22, a Cold War-era missile designed to hit US aircraft carriers.
The cathedral's archdeacon, Andriy Palchuk, said the missile strike had started a fire which only affected one corner of the cathedral containing non-historic religious artefacts for purchase by worshippers.
"The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless," he said.
Ukraine's defence ministry said the cathedral had now been "destroyed twice," by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
The early 19th-century cathedral was demolished in 1936 as part of Stalin's anti-religious campaigns and rebuilt when Ukraine gained independence from Moscow in 1991.
When the Russian missile hit on the weekend, parts of the building were destroyed, the floors were covered in rubble and chunks were ripped off the cathedral's ornate walls. Several local residents from the surrounding area came to assist with cleaning up the rubble.
UNESCO strongly condemned the attack on the cathedral and other heritage sites and said it would send a mission in coming days to assess damage.
Odesa's historic centre was declared a UNESCO world heritage site earlier this year, and the agency said the Russian attacks contradicted Moscow's pledge to take precautious to spare world heritage sites in Ukraine.
"This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against the cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law," UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
Russia has attacked Odesa with missiles and drones several times since it withdrew on Monday from a year-old deal that had allowed for safe exports of Ukraine's grain from Black Sea ports. Odesa's ports were the departure point for grain leaving Ukraine in the agreement, brokered by Turkey and the UN.
Mr Zelenskyy vowed payback, saying on Twitter: "There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation."
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a statement condemning the attack and offering assistance in the reconstruction of the cathedral.
Russia denies responsibility for cathedral damage
In its daily briefing, Russia's defence ministry said it had struck targets "where terrorist attacks were being prepared" in the Odesa area and all targets had been destroyed.
Separately, the ministry said Ukrainian reports of a Russian strike on the cathedral were false, and its targets in Odesa were located "a safe distance" from the cathedral complex. It said the "probable cause" of the damage to the cathedral was a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.
Russia has been pounding Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities almost daily over the past week.
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers have said in the past week that Russia had changed its air attack tactics, using a combination of weapons in a "swarm" manner, one wave after another, which they said was more difficult to defend against.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of using 19 missiles of different types "absolutely on purpose, so that they are harder to shoot down and so that they cause more destruction." Odesa's military administration said air defence systems destroyed nine of the 19 missiles fired at Odesa and the surrounding region.
The cathedral that was hit on Sunday is of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), Ukraine's second-largest church. Most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Russian authority.
Ukraine has accused the UOC of maintaining links to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which used to be its parent church but with which the UOC says it broke ties in May last year following the Russian invasion.
Reuters/AP
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