SW News: A historic church in the southern city of Kherson that formerly housed the remains of a prominent 18th-century Russian commander was damaged by Russian bombardment on Thursday.
The fire at St. Catherine's Cathedral was being tackled by rescue personnel when a second wave of shelling struck, according to the emergency service of Ukraine. The initial shelling attack, which also damaged a trolleybus, injured four other persons.
The shelling highlighted the danger the war poses to the nation's historical sites after an Orthodox cathedral in Odesa was severely damaged by a missile strike last week. As Ukraine's military pushes up a counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, fighting has gotten worse in several areas.
Prince Grigory Potemkin was originally buried in the Kherson church, which was built in 1781. Potemkin incorporated the Crimean Peninsula into Russia and exercised Russian dominance over the southeast regions of contemporary Ukraine.
His remains were removed last year while the city was still under Russian occupation. Russian forces withdrew from Kherson last November in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Potemkin engineered the 1784 annexation of Crimea from the Crimean Khanate. His name entered popular speech because of stories, now widely doubted, that he erected fake settlements called “Potemkin villages” to impress Catherine during her long journey through Crimea and the southern territories.
Two persons were reportedly killed by Russian attacks throughout the previous day, one each in the provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force said the Kyiv region was attacked by a wave of 15 Russian drones but all were shot down. There were no injuries or property damage.
The military of Ukraine has continued to send drones far into Russian territory. The Russian Defence Ministry said the latest event was the downing of six Ukrainian drones in the Kaluga region, approximately 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Moscow. Vladislav Shapsha, the governor of Kaluga, reported shooting down another drone.
Kherson was liberated by Ukrainian forces in November of last year after suffering through nearly nine months of Russian captivity, marking a significant triumph for Ukraine and an embarrassing loss for the Kremlin. After being retaken by the Ukrainians, Kherson became the southern front line of the country and a target of daily Russian attacks, primarily artillery and drone attacks originating from Russian-held areas across the Dnieper River. Reports of civilian casualties are the outcome of the frequent strikes.
Early in June, the war-related collapse of the Kakhovka dam devastated Kherson, flooding near riverbank areas and forcing hundreds of civilians to flee.