Just 12 hours after Moscow signed an agreement with Ukraine to allow grain exports from southern Ukrainian ports to be tracked, Russia attacked the main Ukrainian port of Odesa, through which shipments of cereals, with cruise missile attacks.
“The enemy attacked the commercial sea port of Odesa with Kalibr cruise missiles,” Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command wrote on Telegram, raising doubts about the viability of the deal that sought to release 20 million tons of grain to prevent starvation in large parts of developing countries. world
Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately confirm responsibility for the attack.
Eyewitness footage posted on social media, taken in the port area, showed one of the missiles exploding near the seafront behind rows of containers and not far from a docked ship.
The historic deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Friday is seen as crucial to curbing rising global food prices, easing a supply crisis by allowing certain exports to be shipped from Black Sea ports, including Odesa.
UN officials had said on Friday that they expected the deal to be operational within weeks, but it was not yet clear whether it would still be possible, given Saturday’s strikes.
However, in one of the biggest attacks on the city since the war began, the explosions rocked buildings in the center and sent up a column of smoke that was visible across the city.
On Odesa’s seafront, picnickers cheered as anti-aircraft defenses shot down two of the four missiles, and the remaining two hit the port.
The attacks, which occurred so soon after the signing of the grain agreement in Istanbul, were immediately condemned.
“Intriguing,” tweeted US Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink. “Russia hits port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing deal to allow agricultural export shipments. The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held to account.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres “unequivocally condemns” the strikes, according to a spokesman, adding that all parties to the war between Russia and Ukraine had committed to an agreement to export grain from Ukrainian ports.
“These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and alleviate the suffering of millions of people in need around the world,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement. “Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.”
Russia and Ukraine are the world’s main suppliers of wheat, and the war sent food prices soaring. A global food crisis has pushed 47 million people into “acute hunger”, according to the World Food Programme.
Friday’s deal aims to prevent starvation in poorer countries by putting more wheat, sunflower oil, fertilizer and other products on world markets, including for humanitarian needs, in part at lower prices.
The attack was one of a series of Russian strikes in Ukraine, with the town of Kropyvnytskyi hit by 13 missiles on Saturday morning. Local governor Andriy Raikovych said at least one soldier and two guards were killed while 13 people were wounded in Kropyvnytskyi.
Local people in the city said the strikes targeted an airbase on the outskirts as well as a railway substation.
Strikes were also reported in Kharkiv, where a residential area was attacked, killing at least three people, and in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
A man stands inside an apartment damaged by a Russian military strike on Saturday in Kharkiv. Photograph: Reuters
The sudden increase in Russian missile attacks follows several days of relative calm in Ukraine. In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a possible counteroffensive fired rockets at the Dnieper River crossings in an attempt to cut off supplies to the Russians, amid claims that Ukrainian troops near the city had surrounded a Russian formation. .
The new attacks came hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals with the UN and Turkey aimed at averting a global food crisis.
The deals pave the way for the shipment of millions of tons of grain from Ukraine and some Russian grain and fertilizer exports stalled by the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his late-night video that the deals offered “an opportunity to prevent a global catastrophe, a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries around the world, particularly in countries that help us.” .
Despite progress on that front, fighting continued unabated in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.
Russian troops have also faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely remained in the Kherson region of the northern Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
A blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Russian Black Sea Fleet since Moscow’s February 24 invasion has trapped tens of millions of tons of grain and grounded many ships.
This has worsened global supply chain bottlenecks and, along with Western sanctions on Russia, fueled food and energy price inflation.
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Under the export plan signed Friday, Ukrainian officials would guide the ships through safe channels through mined waters to three ports, including Odesa, where they would be loaded with grain.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the crisis, blaming sanctions for curbing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for exploiting approaches to its Black Sea ports.
Senior UN officials, briefing reporters on Friday, said the deal was expected to be fully operational within weeks and would restore grain shipments from the three reopened ports to pre-war levels. 5 million tons per month.