Russian missile blasts historic cathedral in Ukraine killing one and injuring 22
Russian missiles struck a historic Orthodox cathedral today in a brutal airstrike that killed at least one person and wounded 22 others.
Moscow continued its attacks on the port city of Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, after withdrawing from a wartime deal that allowed exports of crops through the Black Sea this week.
Kremlin tyrant Vladimir Putin had vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula last week.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said today that four children were among those wounded in the early-morning blasts, which severely damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox cathedral in the city.
A man stands inside the cathedral following the Russian attack (AFP via Getty Images)Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk said: “The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless.”
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Cathedral workers scrambled to remove documents and valuable items from the building, which had been flooded by water by firefighters battling the blaze. Mr Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile.
Two people who were inside at the time of the strike were wounded.
Mr Kiper said six residential buildings - including several apartment blocks - had been destroyed. Some people were trapped in their apartments due to the devastation of the attack, which left rubble strewn in the street and damage to power lines.
“Odesa: another night attack of the monsters,” Mr Kiper wrote on Telegram.
Local residents walk among the rubble of the buildings damaged as a result of a missile strike in Odesa (AFP via Getty Images)Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency service workers but refused to leave her destroyed apartment after she received medical help.
“I will stay here,” she said to the emergency service worker who advised her to leave.
Another resident, Ivan Kovalenko, 19, said: “I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor.”
He came to Odesa after fleeing the city of Mykolaiv when his house was destroyed.
“That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment,” he said.
The cathedral was destroyed (AFP via Getty Images)His ceiling partially collapsed, the balcony came off the side of the building, and all the windows were blown out.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russian “terrorists” would “feel this retaliation”.
He tweeted: “Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral... 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.”
Earlier Russian attacks this week crippled significant parts of export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk and destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry.
Mr Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were due to meet today in St Petersburg, two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against its neighbour would be considered an attack on Russia.
Mr Lukashenko said that Wagner mercenaries, who went to Belarus after an aborted coup against Moscow, wanted to go west “on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow” in Poland, but that Belarus would not allow them to relocate.
“I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed. ... We are controlling what is happening” with Wagner, he said.
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