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Military operation in Ukraine

Russian diplomat puts blame for damage to Odessa’s Transfiguration Cathedral on Kiev

Maria Zakharova noted that Ukraine had no right to appeal to legality after what had happened "with dozens of Orthodox churches, with the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, relics, monuments and memorials"

© AP Photo/ Jae C. Hong

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has blamed Kiev for the damage that was done to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said earlier that on Sunday night Russian forces had attacked UNESCO-protected religious facilities in Odessa.

"First, after what the Kiev regime has done to dozens of Orthodox churches, to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, relics, monuments and memorials it has no right to appeal to laws," she wrote on her Telegram channel. "By the way, the damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral is also on the conscience of the Kiev regime and incompetent operators of air defense systems, which are deliberately deployed by the Ukrainian army in residential quarters, and the ddfense ministry has already confirmed this."

"Second, the UNESCO secretariat hold a biased position on the situation in Ukraine," she stressed, adding that officials from this organization "refuse to see the lawlessness that has been going on in Ukraine for years."

"Moreover, when Kuleba’s gang ordered to tear down Catherine the Great’s statute, UNESCO was silent and decided to ‘protect’ Odessa’s historical center, which could no longer be called historical after the statute of the city’s founder was dismantled," Zakharova noted.

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Ukraine Maria Zakharova Military operation in Ukraine

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