“It’s awful, awful. A tragedy!” Odessa mayor calls for partial demolition of badly damaged cathedral after Russian bombardment

Looking worried, a group of Ukrainian officials observe the cracks in the back wall of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, a splendid building hit during a Russian bombardment in this major port city. “The threat is that the part of the building where this crazy Russian missile fell is moving”told AFP the mayor of Odessa, Gennady Troukhanov, in front of the Orthodox cathedral partly destroyed in the night from Saturday to Sunday. “We will immediately start demolishing this wall. It will drag the whole building down with it, if it collapses on its own,” adds the mayor a little later, addressing Metropolitan Agafanguel, an 84-year-old Orthodox cleric in charge of the diocese.

“The Pride of Odessa”

Odessa, a strategic port on the Black Sea whose historic center was listed earlier this year by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, had until then been relatively spared from the Russian invasion launched in February 2022. After its withdrawal in mid-July from an agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals, Russia began to shell the port areas of the city, also damaging some of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Odessa. “We had never experienced such attacks in Odessa, this is the first time”confirms the mayor.

The mayor of the city asked the metropolitan for permission to proceed with a partial demolition of the building. “Explain to the parishioners that it is not safe. They should not be here”he said to him. “It’s awful, awful. A tragedy. What a holy place!”, laments the Metropolitan. Shortly before, he had visited the cathedral in the company of ecclesiastics in hard hats. During an outdoor liturgy, the faithful wept while listening to the songs and psalmodies.

Large golden icons and faces of cherubs were placed against the exterior walls. Inside, volunteers mopped up the floor and piled up torn and shattered icons. Murals, recently completed, have been torn away, revealing the concrete and metal structure.

“These walls are not just walls. They were erected with our hands, with our love. Now it’s such a blow, such pain, such sorrow”laments a faithful, Galyna, 58, who sells candles to raise funds for the restoration. “This church is the pride of Odessa”assures another 85-year-old faithful, also named Galyna, by examining an icon of the Blessed Virgin, saved and almost intact.

A cathedral founded 200 years ago

Founded more than 200 years ago and destroyed by the Soviets in 1936, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration was rebuilt in the early 2000s thanks to donations. It was consecrated in 2010 by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. The building therefore belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church attached to the Moscow Patriarchate. Although she has severed her ties with Russia, many in Ukraine consider her to be still loyal to him.

Odessa diocesan spokesman Archpriest Maximian Pogorelovsky, 31, links the destruction of the original cathedral by the Soviets in 1936 to the recent attack. “This cathedral was rebuilt, everyone was happy, and now the heirs of Bolshevism – Russian rockets – have destroyed this cathedral”he said.

The archpriest says he, like other clerics, felt “hate” and of “misunderstanding” against the Russian bombardment.“We can therefore say with certainty that they (the Russians) targeted the cathedral, probably to frighten and confuse us”, he says. The Kremlin denied having targeted the building, assuring that the destruction was caused by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles, fired to intercept the Russian rockets which fell on the city. In addition to the cathedral, the recent strikes hit the historic House of Scientists, with blown windows, a professional center and apartment buildings near the port.