Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa badly damages landmark Orthodox cathedral

Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past weekAt least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the attack in the early hours officials saidRegional Gov Oleh Kiper said four children were among those wounded in the blasts which severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city including the historic Transfiguration CathedralAfter the fires were put out volunteers donned hard hats shovels and brooms at the Orthodox cathedral to begin removing rubble combing through to salvage any artifacts under the watchful gaze of the saints whose paintings remained intactLocal officials said the icon of the patroness of the city was retrieved from under the rubbleThe destruction is enormous half of the cathedral is now roofless said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk as cathedral workers brought documents and valuables out of the building its floor inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the blazePalchuk 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 woundedBut with Gods help we will restore it he said bursting into tearsA woman who came to help with the cleanup said she loved the cathedral for its tranquility and graceWhen you enter this church you feel like youre beyond the world said Liudmyla who gave only her first name I have a feeling that God to protect apartments took this pain this explosion upon himselfAnna Fetchenko who came to Odesa for a volunteer meeting also pitched in to clear the debris I wanted to go to the seaside but last night was so frightening that I cried for the first time in 2023 she saidThis is our Ukrainian heritage and now its taken away from usLater Sunday Palchuk urged people to gather in front of the destroyed part of the cathedral for an outdoor service and to pray in front of a sacred icon that miraculously survivedWe will pray that it protects us from the Russians he saidThe cathedral belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which has been accused of links to Russia The church has insisted that its loyal to Ukraine has denounced the Russian invasion from the start and even declared its independence from MoscowBut Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the Ukrainian church have maintained close ties with Moscow Theyve raided numerous church holy sites and later posted photos of rubles Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof that some church officials have been loyal to RussiaOdesas historic center was designated an endangered World Heritage Site by UNESCO earlier this year despite Russian oppositionKiper said that six residential buildings were destroyed by the strikesSome people became trapped in their apartments following the attack which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the roadSvitlana Molcharova 85 was rescued by emergency workers But after she received first aid she refused to leave her destroyed apartmentI will stay here she said to the worker who advised her to leaveI woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me I rushed into the corridor said Ivan Kovalenko a 19yearold resident of the building Thats how I lost my home in Mykolaiv and here I lost my rented apartmentHis unit revealed a partially collapsed ceiling and a balcony that came off the side of the building All the windows were blown outUkraines air force reported on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had launched 19 missiles in the Odesa region including five highprecision winged Onyx missiles and four seatoshore Kalibr cruise missiles It said that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nineRussias Defense Ministry said Sunday its forces attacked sites in Odesa where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being preparedIn a later statement the ministry denied that its attacks struck the Transfiguration Cathedral claiming the destruction of the cathedral was likely due to the fall of a Ukrainian antiaircraft guided missileRussia has been launching persistent attacks on Odesa a key hub for exporting grain since Moscow canceled a landmark grain deal on Monday amid Kyivs grinding efforts to retake its occupied territoriesEarlier Russian attacks this week crippled significant parts of export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk and destroyed 60000 tons of grain according to Ukraines Agriculture MinistryThe attacks come days after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative a wartime deal that enabled Ukraines exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hungerPutin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack Monday on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014In other developments Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were meeting on Sunday in St Petersburg two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against its neighbor and ally would be considered an attack on RussiaPutin announced at the start of the meeting that talks would also take place Monday and declared that Kyivs counteroffensive had failedLukashenko said Wagner troops who launched joint drills with the Belarusian military on Thursday almost a month after their shortlived rebellion against Moscow wanted to go west on an excursion to Warsaw to Rzeszow in Poland but that Belarus would not allow the mercenary force to relocateI am keeping them in central Belarus like we agreed We are controlling what is happening with Wagner he said Kharkiv regional Gov Oleh Syniehubov reported Sunday morning that two people were killed in Russian strikes on the northeastern province Saturday when Russia attacked populated areas of the Kharkiv Chuhuiv Kupiansk and Izium districtsDonetsk regional Gov Pavlo Kyrylenko said four residents of the eastern region were killed and 11 wounded in attacks the previous dayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever