“The cathedral in Odesa is an example of a site that has suffered severe damage,” said Chiara Detsy Bardeski, head of UNESCO’s office in Ukraine. “It is a symbol of the entire community and has deep spiritual and historical meaning.”
In July 2023, UNESCO strongly condemned the “brazen attack by the Russian military” on historic buildings in central Odesa, an area that UNESCO designated as an endangered world heritage site last year. The attack claimed at least two lives and damaged several sites, including Odesa’s main Orthodox church, the 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral.
UNESCO said the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites, including religious buildings and artifacts, could constitute a war crime. The International Criminal Court first brought war crimes charges, including deliberate attacks on historic religious monuments and buildings, in a case involving Mali in 2015.