Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa badly damages landmark Orthodox cathedral; 1 dead, many wounded
CTV
Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odessa again on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours, officials said.
Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odessa again on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours, officials said.
Four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city, including the historic Transfiguration Cathedral.
Russia has been launching repeated attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, since Moscow cancelled a landmark grain deal on Monday amid Kyiv's grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories.
After the fires were put out at the Orthodox cathedral, volunteers donned hard hats, shovels and brooms to begin removing rubble, combing through to salvage any artifacts -- under the watchful gaze of the saints whose paintings remained intact. Local officials said the icon of the patroness of the city was retrieved from under the rubble.
"The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless," said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk, as workers brought documents and valuables out of the building, its floor inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile that penetrated the building down to the basement. Two people inside at the time of the strike were wounded.
"But with God's help, we will restore it," he said, bursting into tears.
