Ukraine on Sunday promised “retaliatory measures” after Russian attacks on Odessa that killed two people and destroyed a historic cathedral, while Vladimir Putin reiterated that Ukraine’s counter-offensive launched in early June had “failed”.
• Also read: Russian night raid on Odessa; one civilian killed
• Also read: A Ukrainian attack leads to the explosion of an ammunition depot
• Also read: Russian journalist from Ria Novosti news agency killed in southern Ukraine
“There is no counter-offensive,” said Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Russia’s main ally in the conflict in Ukraine, who was received by his Russian counterpart for two days in Saint Petersburg in north-western Russia.
Mr Putin then interrupted him and said: “There is one, but it failed.”
Odessa on the Black Sea, a regular target of Russian attacks and whose historic center was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO earlier this year, was the target of another night raid, according to Ukrainian authorities, killing two people and wounding 22, including at least four children.
Portal
Inside the largely destroyed Cathedral of the Transfiguration, debris lies on the ground as locals have come to help attempt to clear the area.
Collapsed walls, burned icons, rattling chandeliers: Sunday’s scenery in this 200-year-old magnificent building was nothing but destruction.
“All the sets are practically destroyed. Only the bell tower is intact,” Father Myroslav, deputy rector of the cathedral, told AFP. “The blast was so strong that all the windows and doors of the 95 meter long cathedral were damaged.”
Portal
“Missiles against peaceful cities, against apartment buildings, a cathedral,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “There will definitely be retaliation,” he promised.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry condemned “a war crime that will never be forgotten or forgiven,” while Oleksiï Kouleba, deputy chief of staff to the Ukrainian presidency, condemned “a new attempt” to “erase our history and heritage.”
Oleksiï, an Odessa resident, said one of the shots “shattered the windows of his room.” “The kitchen has a hole in the roof,” he told AFP.
Portal
The attacks came shortly after Moscow announced it was conducting military maneuvers in the Black Sea, where tensions have risen since the expiration of a key global food deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports.
The Ukrainian Air Force claimed that Russia fired “19 rockets of different types” (Onyx, Kalibr and Iskander) on Saturday night and shot down nine of them.
Portal
Odessa, in southern Ukraine, is a strategic port for maritime traffic in the region and has been the victim of numerous night attacks in the past week.
On Friday, UNESCO “strongly condemned” the Russian attacks on “several museums” and historical buildings.
According to regional governor Oleg Kiper, 25 monuments were damaged in Sunday’s attacks. He accused the Russian army of “deliberately aiming its rockets at the historical center of Odessa”.
Portal
The Russian army claims to attack only military sites. On Sunday, she claimed to have bombed sites where “terrorist attacks against Russia using naval drones were being prepared.”
On Saturday, a Ukrainian operation using drones blew up an ammunition depot in Crimea, prompting the evacuation of the surrounding population and the suspension of rail services on this peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
The death of a Russian journalist in an attack in Ukraine has also drawn the ire of the Kremlin, which invoked a “heinous crime” and promised a “response”.
On the Zaporijia front in south-eastern Ukraine, where the largest Russian-held nuclear power plant in Europe is located, the Russians said they repelled “three attacks by Ukrainian forces towards Rabotino”.
Portal
Referring to the Wagner group, Belarusian President assured Mr. Putin that he “kept” them in central Belarus a few weeks after the arrival of several of his fighters in that country.
“They demand to go west (…) to Warsaw, Rzeszów,” exclaimed Mr. Lukashenko in the presence of the Russian President, who showed a slight smile on his lips. “But of course that I keep them in the center of Belarus, as we agreed,” he added, but said he noticed “their bad mood.”
The Belarusian leader, portrayed as an intermediary between the Kremlin and Yevgeny Prigoyine at the time of Wagner’s failed rebellion in Russia in late June, then appeared alongside Vladimir Putin on a rare tour of the two leaders in Kronstadt, near Saint Petersburg.
The two men had their picture taken in front of an obviously enthusiastic audience.
Portal
This scene, the degree of spontaneity of which AFP has not been able to verify, comes at a time when, since the failed Wagner uprising, Russian authorities have been trying to show that Vladimir Putin still enjoys popular and army support.