The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation slammed Russia's attack on Odesa, where sites in the Ukraine city's World Heritage centre were hit, as reported by the news agency AFP on Sunday. Condemning the attack in the "strongest terms, UNESCO said that it is deeply dismayed by the "brazen attack". "UNESCO is deeply dismayed and condemns in the strongest terms the brazen attack carried out by the Russian forces, which hit several cultural sites in the city centre," the body said in a statement, as quoted by AFP.
A fresh barrage of Russian missile strikes on Odesa killed one person and damaged a historic cathedral, marking another devastating chapter in the ongoing conflict. In the early hours of Sunday, missiles fell on the southern Ukrainian city, injuring 22 people, including several children. Among the targets was the Transfiguration Cathedral, a late-nineteenth-century architectural marvel that was destroyed during Joseph Stalin's reign and later rebuilt in the early 2000s.
According to The Guardian, the recent wave of attacks followed Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative last Monday, a critical agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped around the world via Odesa's port. In response to the withdrawal, Russia launched a week-long campaign of nonstop strikes on the port city, vowing to demolish Ukraine's Black Sea port infrastructure and treating all ships bound for Odesa as combatants and legitimate targets, it added.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has strongly condemned Russia's recent attack on Odesa, Ukraine, which targeted sites in the city's World Heritage centre. UNESCO issued a statement expressing deep dismay at the brazen assault carried out by Russian forces, which resulted in damage to several significant cultural landmarks in the city centre.