VIDEO: Orthodox Cathedral destroyed by Russian missiles in Odesa

Orthodox Cathedral destroyed by Russian missiles in Odesa.

A Russian air attack on Ukraine’s Odesa city early on Sunday 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.

“Odesa: another night attack of the monsters,” Oleh Kiper, governor of southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia’s military has launched military strikes on Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities over the past week after the Kremlin withdrew from a UN-brokered sea corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain. Kyiv has accused Moscow of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the deal.

“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,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a post on Twitter after this fresh Russian military strike on Odesa.

The latest strike comes hours ahead of a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who arrived in St. Petersburg late on July 22.

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

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, he said.

Russia has been pounding Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities nearly daily over the past week after it withdrew from a U.N.-brokered sea corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.

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