In Odessa, the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, a designated UNESCO heritage site, was damaged on July 23 after it was hit by a missile. Ukraine has blamed Russia for directly targeting the Cathedral and has vowed that "perpetrators will be brought to justice."

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense, in a statement released on Sunday, denied the accusation, explaining 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.”

The statement underscored that while Russia did launch an attack against the military facilities in Odessa, the targeted locations were located “at a safe distance from the temple complex," adding 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 an attempt to avoid such tragic destruction and ensure, as much as possible, that no civilians and civilian infrastructure gets destroyed. 

“The most likely cause for the destruction of [the cathedral] was the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile,” read the statement, which dubbed the skills of personnel operating the Ukrainian air defense systems as "incompetent". 

In Odessa, the targeted locations, said the Russian Defense, were Ukrainian naval facilities that were “used to prepare terrorist acts against Russia” which involved sea drones as well as compounds that accommodated foreign mercenaries fighting for Ukraine.

In turn, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said "First of all, after what the Kiev regime has done to dozens of Orthodox churches, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, relics, monuments and memorials, it has no right to appeal to legality."

Zakharova also reaffirmed that "the damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral is also on the conscience of the Kiev regime and illiterate operators of air defense systems, which the AFU deliberately places in residential areas."

The spokesperson has also accused the UNESCO secretariat of "taking a biased position on the situation in Ukraine."

Ukraine, since the incident, has made multiple posts and given a story to CNN, Reuters, The Guardian, and multiple Western outlets to further demonize Russia. Significantly, however, they all failed to mention that the church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which Ukraine has persecuted and accused of Russian propaganda.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in a tweet that the church was "Destroyed twice - by Stalin and Putin - the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral was built between 1794 and 1808," in an attempt to depict Orthodox Russia as a replica of the USSR to gain further Western support.

Destroyed twice - by Stalin and Putin - the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral was built between 1794 and 1808. It was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1936 and rebuilt after Ukraine regained independence (1996–2006).
On the night of July 22–23, 2023, it was hit by a russian missile.… pic.twitter.com/vCwDhANoR1

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry even made an emotionally appealing statement: "Forgive them, Lord, because we will not," without showing any proof of a Russian missile or shrapnel of a missile they could prove is a Russian missile.

Russia strikes drone boat facility with foreign mercenaries in Odessa

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday that the Russian Armed Forces sent an overnight missile strike on facilities that manufactured drone boats near the city of Odessa. The ministry added that foreign mercenaries were reported to be stationed there.

In a statement, the ministry said, "Last night, the Russian armed forces launched a group strike with long-range high-precision sea- and air-launched weapons on facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using uncrewed boats, as well as on places where they were being manufactured in the vicinity of the city of Odessa. Foreign mercenaries were present at the affected facilities". 

It added that all chosen targets were destroyed.

Read more: How the war on the Moscow Patriarchate is a war on collective identity