On Thursday, Russian shelling struck and damaged St. Catherine’s Cathedral, a prominent church in Kherson, Ukraine. The building once held the remains of an eminent 18th-century Russian commander, Prince Grigory Potemkin.
The shelling led to a fire at the cathedral. In the process of fighting the fire, four workers from Ukraine’s emergency service were wounded during a second round of shelling. Four other individuals were also injured in the first round of shelling, which affected a local trolleybus.
These attacks add to the mounting evidence of the war’s impact on Ukraine’s cultural monuments. Last week, a missile strike severely damaged an esteemed Orthodox cathedral in Odesa. Simultaneously, fighting across the country has intensified, with Ukraine's military enhancing efforts to reclaim Russian-occupied territories.
St. Catherine's Cathedral, built in 1781, is one of Kherson’s most significant structures. It previously served as the burial site for Prince Grigory Potemkin, a close confidant of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Potemkin played a crucial role in extending Russian influence across southeast Ukraine and annexing the Crimean Peninsula. His remains were removed last year amid Russian occupation.
Notably, Potemkin oversaw the 1784 annexation of Crimea from the Crimean Khanate. His legacy also includes the infamous “Potemkin villages,” although the stories of these fake settlements, constructed to impress Empress Catherine, are widely doubted today.
Over the past day, the Ukrainian president's office reported two deaths from Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia provinces.
The Ukrainian air force stated that it had successfully shot down all of the 15 Shahed drones launched by Russia against the Kyiv region, causing no injuries or damage. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military continued to use attack drones deep into Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had downed six Ukrainian drones in the Kaluga region, close to Moscow.
Kherson, which had been under Russian occupation for almost nine months, was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in November last year. This marked a significant victory for Ukraine and a considerable setback for Russia. However, the recapture of Kherson has made it a frontline city in the south and a daily target for Russian attacks, primarily from artillery and drones. These consistent strikes often result in civilian casualties.
Furthermore, the city was severely impacted in early June by the war-induced collapse of the Kakhovka dam, leading to substantial flooding and the evacuation of thousands of residents.
What comes around goes around,,,Slava Ukraine