Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa the night of July 22nd hit several cultural sites, killed one person, and injured 22 civilians, provoking Kyiv’s anger.
The Saturday night strikes hit the historic Cathedral of the Holy Transfiguration, and images of the resulting damage quickly went viral.
The house of worship, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO earlier this year, is part of Odesa’s historic center.
UNESCO was quick to condemn Russia for the “brazen” attack, saying it “marks an escalation of violence against the cultural heritage of Ukraine.”
Officials said an icon of the patroness of Odesa had been retrieved from the rubble.
The foundation of the cathedral dates back to 1794. It was destroyed under Stalin’s communist regime in 1936 and was again restored in the late 1990s following Ukraine’s secession from the Soviet Union. As recently as 2010, the building was consecrated by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.
In addition to the house of worship, apartment buildings and port infrastructure were damaged.
The wave of attacks consisted of 19 missiles of five different types, according to Kyiv. While nine of these were shot down by Ukrainian air defense, the fastest types, such as the Kh-22—a Cold War-era missile designed to hit U.S. aircraft carriers, which was the one to hit the cathedral— it cannot intercept, authorities said.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky took to Twitter, where he said there could be “no excuse for Russian evil, which “as always,” would “lose.” Russia, he promised, will experience a retaliation.”
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, also condemned the attack on Odesa’s old center, calling it “yet another war crime” while adding that Russia had “already damaged hundreds of cultural sites, trying to destroy Ukraine.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a statement condemning the attack and promising that Italy, “with its unique expertise in restoration,” was “ready to get involved with the reconstruction of Odesa’s cathedral and other treasures of Ukraine’s artistic heritage.”
In the meantime, Russia strenuously denies it had targeted the cathedral. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova instead blamed Kyiv.
In what was a reference to Kyiv’s attempts to purge all elements of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is closely affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, the official wrote on her Telegram channel:
First, after what the Kyiv regime has done to dozens of Orthodox churches, to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, relics, monuments and memorials it has no right to appeal to laws.
She went on to argue that the damage the cathedral sustained was instead “on the conscience of the Kiev regime,” and its “incompetent operators of air defense systems, which are deliberately deployed by the Ukrainian army in residential quarters.”
For a week now, following Russia’s termination of the Black Sea Grain Deal which allowed Kyiv to ship its food exports from Odesa, the port city is experiencing a considerable uptick in drone attacks and missile strikes.
