My first reaction when I heard that the Back Sea’s ‘Harry Potter Castle’ had been hit by a missile attack was ‘oh sh*t, they’ve hit the Vorontsov Palace.’

Strange how we become inured to the grinding toll of warfare. My own grandmother, who was raised during Hitler’s Blitzkrieg of London recalled how, after a few months of bombing, Londoners became much more concerned about the loss of historic buildings than the people who happened to be in them at the time. It is the edifices, after all, which represent the continuity of a civilisation as the fashions and politics of their brief inhabitants ebb and wane over the centuries.

What a relief, then, that the Vorontsov palace still stands in the mountains of the Crimea – its blend of Tudor Renaissance and Islamic facades unique in all the world.

And what a tragedy that five people have been killed and 32 injured in Odessa – where the ‘Harry Potter Castle’ turned out to be a rather modern homage to the 19th Century villas, whose cupolas and onion-capped window casements line the coast from the Bosphorus to the Don.

The target of the attack – which was launched by Russia against the Ukraine – appears to have been Serhiy Kivalov, a former MP who lives in the building. Kivalov was confirmed to be among those injured. Among the dead was a four year old child. 

The destruction of the ‘Harry Potter Castle’ hit at the poignant intersection of many wider values. It comes as J K Rowling, the inventor of the Harry Potter Universe, falls under attack for denouncing the worst excesses of Western gender theory. It befel a building whose sincere attempt to hold to architectural tradition in a city and a nation of constant upheaval was itself an expression of human faith in a brighter Ukranian future. And those who were killed died between the two Easters observed in the Christian World: that of the Orthodox East and that of the West, which has been newly adopted by most Ukranian Orthodox church. May they rise in Glory. 

The action foreshadows what many fear to be a summer offensive by Russia. While missile strikes by North Korean manufactured Rockets have been confirmed on Ukranian territory. 

Jens Stoltenberg has warned that “Serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield,” with President Zelenskiy warning that the process of importing new equipment must be hurried up.