Ukraine has vowed to avenge Russia’s latest missile attack on its southern port of Odesa, which killed one person, injured 21 others and badly damaged a cathedral and other historic buildings in the Unesco-listed heart of the Black Sea city.
The strike in the early hours of Sunday was the latest in a string of attacks that have wrecked port infrastructure and destroyed tens of thousands of tonnes of food awaiting export in Odesa, following Moscow’s decision last week to withdraw from a deal to allow Ukraine to ship grain to the world via the Black Sea.
The attack smashed the roof and several walls of the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city centre, causing a fire and hurling rubble through the interior of a Unesco world heritage site that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin demolished in 1936 and which Ukraine rebuilt after gaining independence from Kremlin rule in 1991.
“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,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter.
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“All those who suffered from this latest terrorist attack are being provided with assistance… We will restore peace. And for this, we must defeat the Russian evil.”
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Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said four children were among those hurt in the attack and 44 buildings were damaged, including 25 that were listed as architectural monuments.
“The only goal of the Russians is to destroy. Ours is to protect our home and rebuild it, to deal with the consequences of Russian crimes. Let’s take revenge for each and every one,” he added.
Ukrainian officials urged the West to provide their country with more air defence systems, longer-range missiles to strike Russian positions deep in occupied territory, and to ensure that Kyiv can continue to ship grain to world markets and so ease fears of food price rises and of famine in some regions.
At the request of Mr Zelenskiy, the newly established Nato-Ukraine council is expected to discuss the Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports and prospects for continued grain exports during talks at ambassador level this week.
Moscow claims to be hitting military sites in Odesa where Ukraine is preparing attacks on Russian targets, following an explosion last Monday on the main bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea, which the Kremlin blamed on marine drones launched by Kyiv’s forces.
Russia’s defence ministry said the damage to the Odesa cathedral was probably caused by “incompetent actions by operators of air defence systems” in the city.
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During talks on Sunday, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko dismissed Ukraine’s slow-moving counteroffensive against Moscow’s occupation force as a failure.
Mr Lukashenko also said, apparently in jest, that members of the Russian Wagner mercenary group in his country were “stressing us out” with requests to “pay a visit” to neighbouring Poland.
The Wagner group launched a brief mutiny last month, seizing the southern Russian city of Rostov, shooting down several Russian military aircraft and threatening to march on Moscow. They abandoned the plan after a few hours and were offered the chance to go into “exile” in Belarus with the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The mercenaries arrived in considerable numbers in recent days and started training Belarusian troops.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said it was too early to judge the success of Ukraine’s “tough” counteroffensive. “It will not play out over the next week or two,” he told CNN. “We’re still looking I think at several months.”
