One person was killed, over 20 were hurt, and an Orthodox church was severely damaged in an early Sunday airstrike on Odesa, Ukraine, according to officials there. They also reported the city’s patroness’ icon had been found under the rubble.
Oleh Kiper, the governor of the Odesa region, posted on the Telegram messaging service, ‘Odesa: another night attack of the monsters.’
In addition to destroying six homes and apartment complexes, the missile assaults resulted in one death and 19 injuries, including four children. He claimed that fourteen individuals were hospitalised.
According to the military administration of Odesa, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, also known as the Transfiguration Cathedral, was seriously damaged. The main church structure in Odesa is situated in the old city core, a UNESCO world heritage site.
‘The Kasperovska icon of the Mother of God, who is the patroness of Odesa, was retrieved from under the rubble,’ the administration said on its Telegram channel.
The magnificent walls of the cathedral were torn in pieces, portions of the structure were ruined, and the floors were covered in debris.
The cathedral was not one of the targets bombed, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, which claimed the building was likely struck by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile instead.
Since withdrawing on Monday from a year-old agreement that had allowed for secure deliveries of Ukraine’s grain from Black Sea ports, Russia has repeatedly bombarded Odesa with missiles and drones. In the deal mediated by Turkey and the UN, grain departing Ukraine left from the ports of Odessa.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president, denounced the assault on Sunday and pledged retaliation.
‘There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will be lost. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation,’ he said on Twitter.
Russian Defence Ministry stated that it had attacked locations ‘where terrorist attacks were being prepared’ in the Odesa area and that all targets had been destroyed in its daily briefing.
Separately, the ministry denied Ukrainian accusations that Russia had attacked the church, claiming that its Odesa targets were ‘a safe distance’ away. It claimed that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile was the ‘probable cause’ of the cathedral’s damage.
Over the past week, Russia has been hammering Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities virtually every day.
Military bloggers who support the Kremlin have claimed in the past week that Russia has changed its air attack strategies, employing a variety of weaponry in a ‘swarm’ fashion, one wave at a time, which is harder to defend against.
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