Enormous Destruction: The Transfiguration Cathedral In Odesa After Russian Strike

• 23.07.2023, 10:17

The Russian missile hit right on the central altar of the temple.

On the night of July 23, the Russian terrorist army launched another missile attack on Odesa. As a result of the terrorist attack, the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was destroyed.

In addition to the building of the cathedral, Orthodox shrines were damaged - the Kasperovska Icon of the Mother of God, which is the patroness of Odesa, was pulled out from under the rubble. This was reported in the Odesa City Council.

Representatives of the Odesa Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said that a Russian missile hit the central altar directly. The impact caused a fire there.

As a result, the building of the cathedral, and the three lower floors were partially destroyed, the interior and icons were significantly damaged, and the service premises of the lower part of the cathedral were completely destroyed.

According to the cleric of the Odesa Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Andriy Palchuk, the Russian missile hit the right side of the cathedral and pierced the building through to the first floor. As a result, the cathedral was significantly damaged, and a fire started inside.

“The destruction is enormous. Half of the cathedral was left without a roof. The central piles and the foundation are broken. All the windows were blown out as well as the molding. There was a fire, the part of the cathedral with an icons and candles shop caught fire. After the end of the air raid, the services arrived. The State Emergency Service extinguished the fire,” Palchuk said in a commentary to Suspіlne Novini.

Serhiy Bratchuk, a representative of the South Ukrainian Volunteer Army, said on the air of the telethon that the Transfiguration Cathedral was destroyed by the Soviet authorities in the 20th century, but then Odesa citizens helped to rebuild the temple.

In 1936 the cathedral was destroyed. Also, the Soviet authorities plundered the cathedral - they even carried out marble and granite slabs, after which they dismantled it to the ground. This is confirmed by the fact that, as modern excavations have shown, the foundation of the cathedral remained intact.

Before that, under pressure from those interested in the destruction of the cathedral, the chief architect of the city signed a decree stating that the cathedral was of no architectural value.

The Bolshevik authorities of the city decided to arrange an entertainment place on the site of the cathedral, and it was planned to place a toilet on the site of the main altar. And only the patronage of academician Vladimir Filatov saved the holy place from desecration - a fountain with a large marble vase in the form of a flower was installed in place of the altar. Dozens of years later, Russian terrorists actually repeated the act of the Soviet leadership, but this time they destroyed the cathedral with missiles.

This is how the cathedral looked before the night of the Russian terrorist attack.

Recall that on the night of July 23, a series of explosions rocked Odesa, air defence was working, but there were hits. According to the South Operational Command, Russian troops attacked the region with Kh-22 cruise missiles from Tu22m3 aircraft, as well as Caliber, Onyx, Iskander-K, and Iskander-M ballistic missiles.