Russia Strikes At Castle Of Odesa Politician Who Received Medals In Kremlin

The ex-regionalist is wounded.

Russian missiles have struck Odesa. The strike damaged one of the most famous buildings in the city - a mansion, which locals call ‘Harry Potter's castle’ or ‘Kivalov's castle’. One of the buildings of the Odesa Law Academy is located here, and according to the Ukrainian media, Sergei Kivalov, the rector of this educational institution, lived there from time to time, BBC reports.

According to the Ukrainian military, a fire broke out in the building on an area of 600 square metres.

The vice-rector of the Odesa Law Academy, Valentyn Fedorov, confirmed to the Ukrainian public broadcaster of Suspilne that Kivalov himself was among the injured. A video of Kivalov being picked up by an ambulance is shared on social media.

In the past, Kivalov was one of the most famous Ukrainian politicians. During the Orange Revolution in 2004, he headed the Central Election Commission and was accused of rigging the presidential election in favour of pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

Kivalov was dismissed as head of the Central Election Commission after Ukraine's Supreme Court found massive irregularities in the vote count and decided to re-run the second round of elections. As a result of the vote held in early 2005, Viktor Yushchenko was elected president of Ukraine.

In 2012, Kivalov co-authored the scandalous law ‘On the Fundamentals of Language Policy,’ which among other things protected the status of the Russian language in Ukraine. Opponents of the law insisted that it was the Ukrainian language that needed protection at that time, as Russian already occupied a significant place in the public space. After the European Revolution, the law was cancelled as contradicting the Constitution of Ukraine.

In 2009, Kivalov received the Order of Friendship from then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and in 2013 Vladimir Putin awarded him the Pushkin Medal. A decree signed by Putin said that he was awarded this medal for ‘a great contribution to the preservation and popularisation of the Russian language abroad’.