“Odessa Cathedral hit by Ukraine Missile Defense”. Kremlin denied Strikes on Civilian Targets – UPDATE
by Gospa News Editorial Staff
UPDATE ON JULY, 24, 2023
Russia: “The attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow is an act of international terrorism”
The attempted Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow early Monday morning, which damaged several non-residential buildings, is “an act of international terrorism,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
The spokeswoman condemned the attack on Monday morning while speaking to RTVI TV. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine attempted to stage “a terrorist attack” against Moscow using two drones, which were suppressed by electronic warfare systems.
TASS reported that several UAV fragments were found in Komsomolsky Prospekt in the center of the city, not far from the Defense Ministry HQ. Another UAV crashed into a business center in the southern part of the capital, smashing windows, the agency added. The city authorities said that traffic in both areas was temporarily halted but that there were no reports of casualties or serious damage.
Kremlin: “Russia does not target civilian buildings”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has reiterated Russian denials that one of its missiles was responsible for the damage done to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa over the weekend. The claims coming from Kiev are “absolutely not true”, he told journalists on Monday.
“Our armed forces never conduct strikes on objects of social infrastructure, even less so on temples, churches and similar objects,” he assured. The Russian Defense Ministry previously said a Ukrainian interceptor missile was likely to blame, an assertion that Peskov endorsed.
According to the Kiev regime, the Russian army launched a massive wave of 19 missiles against the Odessa region, nine were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force said. However, the defense points out, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, that the Ukrainian anti-area cannot shoot down the Kh-22 and Onyx missiles as the modern systems supplied by international partners are not sufficient to “close the sky” over Ukraine:
“The difficulty of detecting Russian Onyx cruise missiles is due to the fact that they fly at a speed of over three thousand km per hour and can actually fly 10-15 meters above the water”.
The Russian attack on Odessa that caused at least one death last night did not spare the Transfiguration cathedral: the city council announced this. The images of what remains of the historic place of worship are already circulating on the network and show one side of the facade completely destroyed, as well as extensive damage caused inside the cathedral. Completed in 1808, the cathedral was demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1936 and rebuilt between 1999 and 2003.
The Russian attack on the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, the city’s main Orthodox Christian place of worship, is a “war crime”: the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry declared it. “The Transfiguration Cathedral, located in the historic center of Odessa and protected by Unesco, has been destroyed. A war crime that will never be forgotten or forgiven,” read a message posted on Twitter.
But according to Moscow, the cult building was hit due to a mistake by Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire. “In view of the footage of the Transfiguration Church in Odessa published by local residents, the most likely cause of its destruction was the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile as a result of actions of illiterate operators of air defense systems, which the Kiev army intentionally placed in residential areas of populated areas, including in the city of Odessa,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its explanation of the attack that devastated the cathedral.
There have been several attacks against the port of Odessa by the Russian armed forces in recent days. Kiev attributed them to the desire to terrorize ships after the official interruption of the humanitarian corridor for the transit of Ukrainian grain, also used, according to Moscow, for arms trafficking and planning of attacks.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced these attacks in retaliation for two terrorist attacks: naval drones against the Crimean bridge and the killing of Russian journalists.
Ukrainian shelling that claimed the life of a Russian journalist and left several others injured was not a coincidence, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. Earlier the same day, a war correspondent from Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed in an artillery strike in Zaporozhye Region.
The reporter, along with his colleagues, who also suffered injuries in the strike, was collecting information on Ukrainian cluster bomb strikes on settlements in the region, Zakharova explained. “The Kiev regime is continuing its practice of criminal terror,” she said in a statement on Telegram.
All these facts make the Russian version that the Odessa Cathedral was hit by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles more credible. Also because the powerful missiles from Moscow, if they had hit the church, would have completely destroyed it.
Moscow: “Kiev’s ‘incompetence’ to blame for damage to Odessa cathedral”
Originally published by Russia Today
Ukrainian claims that the largest Orthodox cathedral in the port city of Odessa was severely damaged by a Russian missile strike are completely false, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, adding that it was likely hit by Kiev’s own air defense systems.
In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said that “the information disseminated by the Kiev regime about the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Odessa being hit by [Russian] high-precision weapons does not correspond to reality.” It added that all Russian strikes successfully hit military facilities in the region that were located “at a safe distance from the temple complex.”
Odessa Ukrainian Centers that prepared Naval Drone Terrorist Attacks on Crimean Bridge Destroyed
Officials also stressed that “the planning of high-precision strikes against the military and terrorist infrastructure of the Kiev regime is carried out based on carefully vetted and confirmed information” in a bid to avoid hitting the civilian population as well as cultural sites.
The ministry added that the footage from the scene suggests that “the most likely cause for the destruction of [the cathedral] was the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile.” The incident could have been caused by the “incompetent actions” of personnel managing Ukrainian air defense systems which Kiev deliberately deploys in civilian-populated areas, it added.
According to the ministry, the Russian strikes overnight successfully hit Ukrainian naval facilities near Odessa that were “used to prepare terrorist acts against Russia” involving sea drones. Officials also claimed that the attack landed on compounds accommodating foreign mercenaries fighting for Kiev.
Photos circulating on social media appear to show extensive damage to the cathedral’s facade, with the floor inside the lavishly decorated building strewn with rubble. The pictures also show the altar smashed into pieces and shattered ceiling murals.
Initially founded in 1794, the Transfiguration Cathedral became the main church of the entire region before being demolished by the Soviets in 1936. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was restored and consecrated by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in 2010.
In recent days, Russian forces ramped up strikes in Odessa Region, targeting shipyards, fuel depots, and weapons stockpiles, according to the Defense Ministry. The attacks came in response to a Ukrainian maritime drone raid on the Crimean Bridge earlier this month that damaged one section of the roadway and claimed the lives of a married couple from Russia, injuring their teenage daughter.
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