At least one person was killed and 22 injured after a fresh wave of Russian missile strikes on the port city of Odesa.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said that four children were among the wounded in the overnight blasts, which damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral and six residential buildings.
Some people were left trapped in their apartments following the attack, which left rubble strewn in the street and caused major damage to power lines.
Following the attack, Volodymyr Zelensky promised a “retaliation” against Russia.
Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral... There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2023
All those who… pic.twitter.com/gcpD30BFP1
He said: “There can be no excuse for Russian evil. As always, this evil will lose. And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation.”
Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency service workers. But after she received first medical aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment.
“I will stay here,” she said to the emergency service worker who advised her to leave.
“I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor,” said Ivan Kovalenko, 19, another resident of the building. He came to Odesa having fled the city of Mykolaiv in search of a safer place to live after his house was destroyed.
“That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment. ”
The Transfiguration Cathedral, one of the most important and largest Orthodox Cathedrals in Odesa, was severely damaged.
“The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless,” said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk, as cathedral workers brought documents and valuable items out of the severely building, the floor of which was inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the fire.
Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile that penetrated the building down to the basement and caused significant damage. Two people who were inside at the time of the strike were wounded.
Russia has been pounding Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities almost daily over the past week after Moscow withdrew from a UN-brokered sea corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.
Unesco has condemned the attacks on the historic city, which is protected under the World Heritage Convention.
