Deadly Russian strike on Odessa damages Orthodox cathedral

Kyiv, The Gulf Observer: A Russian air attack on Ukraine’s Odessa city early has killed one, injured nearly 20 and badly damaged a Russian-linked Orthodox cathedral, with officials saying they retrieved the icon of the patroness of the port city from under the rubble.

According to the governor of southern Ukraine’s Odessa region Oleh Kiper, one person was killed and 19 injured, including four children, in the missile attacks that also destroyed six houses and apartment buildings. Fourteen people were hospitalised.

Russia has been pounding Odessa and other Ukrainian food export facilities nearly daily over the past week after it withdrew from a sea corridor agreement, brokered by the UN and Türkiye, that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.

Odessa’s military administration said that the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), was severely damaged.

The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, or the Transfiguration Cathedral, is Odessa’s largest Orthodox church building. It was consecrated in 1809.