Videos Show Odesa Cathedral Destruction After Russian Missile Strikes

Footage has been released that allegedly shows the aftermath of a renewed barrage of Russian missile strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, which claims to have been targeted at an Orthodox cathedral overnight and injured nearly 20 people.

On Sunday morning, Ukraine's air force said Russian forces had targeted the Black Sea port city with 19 missiles, including four Kalibr and seven Iskander cruise missiles. Air defenses intercepted nine of these missiles, the military said in a post on social media.

One person was killed and 19 were injured, according to Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper. Six residential buildings were destroyed, and two architectural monuments were damaged, he said. The strikes "practically destroyed the largest cathedral in the south of Ukraine," Odesa's military administration said on Telegram.

Footage published by Ukrainian officials shows rubble and debris inside Ukraine's Transfiguration Cathedral and residential buildings in the city. Photos from Odesa, taken early on Sunday, show the exterior of the building missing parts of its roof, and large cracks visible in the building's façade.

"Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral[...]There can be no excuse for Russian evil," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on Sunday morning.

There will be "retaliation" for Moscow's strikes on Odesa, Zelensky said.

Moscow has not publicly commented on the strikes at the time of publication. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine's Transfiguration Cathedral, linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, was hit in the strikes, Ukraine's southern operational command also said in a Facebook post on Sunday. The building, also known as the Spaso-Preobrazhensky cathedral, was consecrated in 1808, and rebuilt between 1999 and 2003 after it was destroyed in the 1930s.

The damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral is a "shameful act," Italy's Foreign Ministry said in a post to Twitter. "Italy, which supported Odesa to become part of the UNESCO World Heritage List, will be at the forefront of the city's reconstruction," the ministry added.

UNESCO added Odesa's historic center to its World Heritage list in January, 2023. The move "embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always risen from the heartbreak of the world, is preserved from further destruction," UNESCO director-general, Audrey Azoulay, said at the time.

Odesa is a frequent target for Russian missile strikes. Between July 17 and July 21, a total of 21 people were injured after waves of missile and drone attacks in the Odesa region, Kiper said on Friday.

On Tuesday, Moscow said its military had used high-precision sea-launched weapons to deliver a "retaliation strike" on Odesa following a suspected Ukrainian drone attack on the Kerch Bridge. The bridge connects the Russian mainland to the annexed Crimean peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014.

Hitting Odesa following the drone attacks on the Kerch Bridge was an "act of revenge" as well as aimed at destroying infrastructure in the Black Sea city, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, previously told Newsweek.

Russian forces in Ukraine are concentrating their efforts in several parts of the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region, and in the northeastern Kharkiv area, including the city of Lyman, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Sunday.

Approximately 40 combat clashes were recorded over the past day, the General Staff said in an operational update.