A storied cathedral protected by the UN in Ukraine's key port city of Odesa has now been bombed twice — once by Putin and once by Stalin

• A Russian missile strike clobbered a Ukrainian cathedral in Odesa, killing one and injuring 19.
• The historic cathedral was destroyed once before, by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s.

A beloved Ukrainian cathedral has been decimated by a Russian military strike — for the second time in its history.

The strike in the port city of Odesa early Sunday morning left one dead and injured 19 others. The strike caused extensive damage to the cathedral, Reuters reported.

Of those injured in the strike, four were children, the region's governor said in a message on Telegram.

"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," Oleh Kiper said on Telegram, per Reuters.

Photos from Reuters showed the devastation in the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral — also known as the Transfiguration Cathedral — which is Odesa's largest church building. It sits in the city's historic center, which is a protected cultural heritage site recognized by UNESCO, according to Reuters.

It is the second time the 19th-century cathedral has been assaulted by Russian aggressors. It was destroyed for the first time in 1936 during the reign of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, according to Reuters. Ukrainians rebuilt the cathedral once they gained independence from the Soviets in 1991.

Andriy Palchuk, the cathedral's archdeacon, told Reuters that the missile strike sparked a fire in one corner of the church that housed non-historic artifacts for purchase.

"When the right altar chapel — of the most sacred part of the cathedral — was hit, a missile piece flew through the whole cathedral and hit the area where we display icons, candles, and books for purchase," Palchuk told the outlet.

The destruction of the key port city is a tactic, according to Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian MP from Odesa.

"Russia's current strategy is to destroy Odesa. They would never really attack foreign-flagged ships coming to Odesa, so they are attacking Odesa to make it clear that it's too dangerous here," Honcharenko said, according to The Guardian.

Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swore revenge in a post on Twitter.

"There can be no excuse for Russian evil," Zelenskyy said. "And there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation."