UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” a missile attack carried out by Russia on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa which caused civilian casualties and damaged the Transfiguration Cathedral.

“In addition to the appalling toll the war is taking on civilian lives, this is yet another attack in an area protected under the World Heritage Convention, in violation of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a written statement.

Noting that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has verified damage to 270 cultural sites in Ukraine, he said “the Secretary-General is concerned about the threat that this war increasingly poses to Ukrainian culture and heritage”.

“The Secretary-General urges the Russian Federation to immediately cease attacks against cultural property protected by widely ratified international normative instruments”, Dujarric added.