"Today, we have once again seen how the barbarians treat our cultural heritage. The museum is located within the UNESCO zone. There is nothing that can stop them," Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov told Reuters news agency.
The Black Sea port city of Odessa was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in January 2023.
Turns 124
The art museum, which celebrates its 124th anniversary on Monday, houses more than ten thousand works of art by prominent Russian and Ukrainian artists.
This is not the first time that Russian attacks have damaged Ukrainian cultural institutions.
Attacks on cultural heritage have become increasingly common in modern wars. But it's unclear if this particular attack was aimed specifically at the art museum.
Russia has previously been criticized for attacking civilian cultural institutions in Ukraine. Among other things, the theater in Mariupol has been completely destroyed.
War for Identity
Julia Malitska, a historian at Södertörn University, who has studied Eastern European politics with a focus on Ukraine, believes that Russia is waging a war against Ukrainian culture and identity and not just a war against Ukraine as a sovereign state.
"Ukraine is in the process of building as a political nation and these symbols are part of that process.