Security
Russia strikes damage historic art museum in Odesa
Images released by officials from inside the Odesa Fine Arts Museum showed art ripped from the walls of the 19th-century building and windows blown out by the aerial bombardment.
![An image released by the Odesa Fine Arts Museum November 6 after an overnight Russian attack. [Odesa Fine Arts Museum]](/gc6/images/2023/11/06/44884-399296054_742325457928137_8216521026835272597_n-370_237.webp)
By Kontur and AFP |
Russian strikes overnight in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa left eight people wounded and damaged a historic art museum, Ukrainian officials said on Monday (November 6), in the latest barrage of drones and missiles.
Images released by officials from inside the Odesa Fine Arts Museum showed art ripped from the walls of the 19th-century building and windows blown out by the aerial bombardment.
Deputy foreign minister Emine Dzheppar said Kyiv was "deeply outraged" by the attack and urged the United Nations' Paris-based heritage agency UNESCO to condemn the strike.
The gallery said on social media the attack had occurred on the museum's 124th birthday and the facility would be closed until further notice.
The governor of the Odesa region, Oleg Kiper, said most of the collection had already been removed during the war.
"Canvases and paintings from the current exhibition were not damaged," he added on social media.
A woman who lived in a nearby building said she and her family were away during the strike but their home had been damaged.
"God led us away. We'll see what happens next in [our] flat. Out of five windows, I have none left," the woman, who gave her name only as Svitlana, told AFP.
Fears for winter
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko meanwhile said the overnight attacks had also damaged 20 residential buildings and infrastructure facilities.
Kiper also said that the strikes had ignited fires at warehouses and on trucks carrying grain but that the flames had been extinguished.
Fears are building in Ukraine that Moscow will again launch systematic attacks on energy facilities as it did last winter, leaving millions without regular heating or light.
The overnight strikes also targeted the southern region of Kherson.
Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin posted footage of a five-storey building with most of its windows shattered and its walls partially collapsed.
"It is a miracle that no-one was seriously injured," Prokudin said, specifying that a 54-year-old woman had been wounded.