Russian missiles hit the port of Ukraine; Kyiv says it is still preparing to export grain

Kyiv (Reuters) – Russian missiles struck the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said, threatening an agreement signed just a day earlier to scrap a ban on grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease war-induced global food shortages.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike showed that Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal. However, public radio Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying that the missiles did not cause significant damage and a government minister said preparations continued for the resumption of grain exports from the Black Sea ports.

The agreement signed by Moscow and Kiev on Friday brokered by the United Nations and Turkey was hailed as a major advance after nearly five months of fighting since Russia invaded its neighbour. It is seen as crucial to curbing the rise in global food prices by allowing grain exports from Black Sea ports including Odessa.

On Friday, UN officials said they hoped the agreement would come into force within a few weeks, and the strikes on Odessa drew strong condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy. Read more

Turkey’s defense minister said Russian officials had told Ankara that Moscow had “nothing to do” with the Odessa strikes. Neither the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement nor the military summary on Saturday night mentioned any missile attack in Odessa. The ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Two Russian Kalibr missiles hit the port’s pumping station area, while two others were shot down by air defense forces, according to Ukraine’s Southern Operations Command. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat, said the missiles were launched from warships in the Black Sea near Crimea.

Suselny quoted a spokeswoman for the Southern Military Command of Ukraine, Natalia Homenyuk, as saying that the port’s grain storage area had not been bombed.

“Unfortunately, there are wounded. The port infrastructure has been damaged,” said Odessa region governor Maxim Marchenko.

But Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kobrakov said on Facebook, “We are continuing technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports.”

safe passage

The strike appeared to violate the terms of Friday’s agreement, which would allow safe passage in and out of Odessa and two other Ukrainian ports.

“This only proves one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to carry it out,” Zelensky said in a video posted to Telegram.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemned” the strikes, adding that full implementation of the agreement was imperative.

“There is an urgent need for these products to confront the global food crisis and alleviate the suffering of millions of needy people around the world,” said company spokesman Farhan Haq.

“During our contacts with Russia, the Russians have told us that they have absolutely nothing to do with this attack, and that they are studying the issue closely and in detail,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement.

“The fact that such an incident happened right after the agreement we made yesterday really worries us,” he added.

Ukraine has mined waters near its ports as part of its war defences, but under the agreement, pilots will guide ships along safe channels. Read more

The Joint Coordination Center (JCC), staffed by members of all four parties to the agreement, will monitor ships transiting the Black Sea to the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey and destined for world markets.

All parties agreed on Friday that there would be no attacks on these entities and it would be up to the JCC to resolve any prohibited activity.

Spitting in the face

“The Russian missile is (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s spit in the face” of Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook.

The US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, wrote on Twitter, “The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held accountable.”

Moscow has denied responsibility for the food crisis, blamed Western sanctions for slowing its exports of food and fertilizer, and blamed Ukraine for mining its ports.

The blockade imposed by the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian ports since the invasion of Moscow on February 24 has led to the seizure of tens of millions of tons of grain and the stranding of many ships.

This has exacerbated global supply chain bottlenecks and, combined with Western sanctions on Russia, has fueled food and energy price inflation. Russia and Ukraine are major global suppliers of wheat, and the global food crisis has pushed nearly 47 million people into “severe hunger,” according to the World Food Program.

UN officials said the deal would restore grain shipments from the three reopened ports to pre-war levels of five million tons per month. Read more

Zelensky said it would save $10 billion worth of grain for sale while exporting nearly 20 million tons of last year’s crop. However, regarding the broader conflict, he told the Wall Street Journal that no ceasefire could be achieved without regaining lost territory.

Three people were killed when 13 Russian missiles hit a military air base and railway infrastructure in central Ukraine’s Kirovohrad region on Saturday, the regional governor said on television.

A Ukrainian official said that Ukraine had hit a bridge in the occupied Kherson region on the Black Sea, targeting a Russian supply route. Russia’s TASS news agency said the deputy head of the Russian-installed regional authority said the bridge was hit but was still working. Read more

Putin called the war a “special military operation” and said it was aimed at disarming Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab.

(Reporting by Natalia Zenets in Kyiv and Tom Balmforth in London and Reuters offices). Written by Jacob Groenholt Pedersen and Matt Spitalnik; Editing by Frances Kerry, Louise Heavens and Grant McCall

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