The United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, said that it had designated the historic centre of Odesa, a strategic port city on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site.
Russia denounced the designation, saying the only threat to Odesa came from the “nationalist regime in Ukraine.”
The status, awarded by a UNESCO panel meeting in Paris, is designed to help protect Odesa’s cultural heritage, which has been under threat since Russia’s invasion and enable access to financial and technical international aid.