According to sources, a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian coastal city of Odesa resulted in at least one fatality, 22 injuries, and significant damage to an Orthodox cathedral.
The governor of Odesa, Oleg Kiper, reported that numerous children were among those hurt in Sunday’s airstrike on the messaging app Telegram.
He announced, “Odesa, another monster night attack.”
Three of the fourteen patients admitted to the city’s hospitals were kids, he said.
Six homes and apartment complexes were also destroyed by the attack, he continued.
Nearly every day for the past week, Russia has been shelling Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities after withdrawing from a sea corridor arrangement mediated by the UN that permitted the secure transport of Ukrainian grain.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said that Odesa had been hit by high-precision Onyx and sea-to-shore Kalibr cruise missiles launched by Russia.
The air defense systems, which according to the city’s military administration comprised Iskander ballistic missiles, destroyed a “significant part” of the missiles.
The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which has ties to Moscow, was also mentioned as having significant damage.
“The Kasperovska icon of the Mother of God, who is the patroness of Odesa, was retrieved from under the rubble,” the administration announced on its Telegram channel.
The largest Orthodox church structure in Odesa is the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, also known as the Transfiguration Cathedral. Consecration took place in 1809.
The structure was partially demolished, with interior rubble and many icons lined up on the ground, according to images and videos released by Odesa authorities and the police.
In one video, a worried guy can be heard muttering, “The church is no longer…,” as he walks around the pitch-black cathedral. Have mercy, Lord.
The UOC is the second-largest church in Ukraine, but the majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers adhere to a distinct branch of the faith that was created four years ago by combining branches that were not subject to Russian rule.
Ukraine has charged the UOC with maintaining relations to the Russian Orthodox Church that supports invasion, which the UOC claims it severed ties with in May of last year.
No quick response was received from Russia.
Russian officials said that their most recent assaults were in retaliation for a Ukrainian attack on a bridge to Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
It claims that Ukraine is launching “terrorist attacks” via the sea route.
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