Twenty-five heritage landmarks in the Ukrainian city of Odesa have been damaged in the latest round of Russian missile strikes, head of the regional administration Oleh Kiper reports.
The buildings in question date back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
“The Russians deliberately directed their missiles at Odesa’s historical centre that is protected by UNESCO. The buildings that were created with hard work by great architects are now being destroyed by cynical monsters,” Kiper wrote.
In total, 44 buildings were damaged.
The latest reports note that the number of injured people in the Odesa strike has risen to 21, four of them are children, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. One person was killed.
One of the missiles damaged the Transfiguration Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Odesa that is run by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). People were performing round-the-clock prayers in Odesa’s Transfiguration Cathedral when Russia bombed it. No one was injured, Metropolitan Kliment,a senior member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told Strana.ua.
The Russian Defence Ministry denies striking the Transfiguration Cathedral.
According to the agency, “the most likely reason behind the cathedral’s destruction is the crash of a Ukrainian anti-air guided missile due to inept actions of the air-defence system operators, which the Ukrainian army deliberately deploys to residential quarters of settlements”.
At the same time, the ministry claimed responsibility for the Odesa strikes. The agency said that the attack was carried out on facilities involved in preparation for terror attacks against Russia that envisioned using uncrewed boats as well as the sites that manufactured them in the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to retaliate.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, condemned the Russian strike on Odesa. “Continuous Russian missile terror on UNESCO-protected Odesa constitutes yet another war crime by the Kremlin, demolishing also the main Orthodox Cathedral — a world heritage site,” he tweeted.
One of the Crimean Bridge sections was damaged in the early hours of 17 July. A man and a woman who were travelling along the bridge in a car were killed, their underage daughter was injured. The Russian Foreign Ministry retaliated later that day by announcing a unilateral termination of the grain deal on 18 July. Odesa has been targeted by missile strikes daily since.
