HOUSE OF GOD HIT BY PUTIN STRIKES

Missile blasts cathedral in Russian blitz on port city

- LIZZY BUCHAN

RUSSIAN missiles targeted a cathedral yesterday, killing at least one person and wounding 22.

Vladimir Putin's forces struck the port city of Odesa, a grain-export hub, after withdrawing from a deal last week that allowed goods movement.

President Putin had vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula.

Odesa's regional governor Oleh Kiper said four children were among those wounded in the early morning blasts, which severely damaged the Transfiguration Cathedral. Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk said: "The destruction is enormous."

Cathedral workers scrambled to remove documents and valuables after firefighters doused the building.