A fresh barrage of Russian missile strikes on Odesa killed one person and damaged a historic cathedral, marking another devastating chapter in the ongoing conflict. In the early hours of Sunday, missiles fell on the southern Ukrainian city, injuring 22 people, including several children. Among the targets was the Transfiguration Cathedral, a late-nineteenth-century architectural marvel that was destroyed during Joseph Stalin’s reign and later rebuilt in the early 2000s.
According to The Guardian, the recent wave of attacks followed Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative last Monday, a critical agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped around the world via Odesa’s port. In response to the withdrawal, Russia launched a week-long campaign of nonstop strikes on the port city, vowing to demolish Ukraine’s Black Sea port infrastructure and treating all ships bound for Odesa as combatants and legitimate targets, it added.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has strongly condemned Russia’s recent attack on Odesa, Ukraine, which targeted sites in the city’s World Heritage centre. UNESCO issued a statement expressing deep dismay at the brazen assault carried out by Russian forces, which resulted in damage to several significant cultural landmarks in the city centre.
The Ukrainian military reported that Russia used a variety of missiles, including Iskander, Kalibr, Onix, and others, in the Sunday strikes, the report said. While some missiles were intercepted by air defence systems, others managed to breach the city’s defences, with tragic results.
The Odesa regional governor, Oleh Kiper, stated that six residential buildings were damaged or destroyed during the morning strikes on Sunday, emphasising the devastation to civilian lives and infrastructure.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s security council, commented on the situation on Facebook, saying that the Russian missile attacks on Odesa and the surrounding region were intended to obstruct Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea and to intimidate and thwart international efforts to restore the vital grain corridor’s operation.
“The main purpose of the Russian missile attacks on Odesa and the region is an attempt to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, and to use intimidation to prevent and neutralise international efforts to restore the functioning of the grain corridor,” wrote Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s security council, on Facebook.
