Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of “barbarism” after missiles hit the southern port of Odesa, threatening a deal signed a day earlier to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and Pal ยท to solve the world food shortage caused by the war.
Just 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Kyiv to allow grain exports from southern Ukrainian ports to be tracked, Russia targeted Odesa, through which the shipments would go, with missile attacks to cruise
Zelenskiy called the attack blatant “barbarism,” showing that Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal.
“This only proves one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it,” he said during a meeting with US lawmakers, according to a statement from the presidency.
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 strikes in Odesa drew strong condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Italy.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “this attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to yesterday’s agreement.”
“Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must stop its aggression,” he added.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the “horrific” attack hours after the deal was signed was “completely unjustified” and proof that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted.
Turkey’s defense minister said Russian officials told Ankara that Moscow had “nothing to do” with the strikes. Neither Russian defense ministry statements nor the military’s evening briefing mentioned the missile attacks in Odesa. The ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The consequences of a missile attack on the port of Odesa. Photo: Odesa City Hall Press Office Han/EPA
On Friday, UN officials said they expected the agreement to go into effect within weeks. Public broadcaster Suspilne quoted Ukraine’s southern military command as saying the port’s grain storage area was not affected.
“Unfortunately there are injured. The infrastructure of the port was damaged,” said Odesa Region Governor Maksym Marchenko.
But Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook that “we continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports.”
Russia and Ukraine are important world suppliers of wheat and the war has driven up food prices. 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 others 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.
The sudden increase in Russian missile attacks comes after 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.
A building hit by a Russian shell in Kharkiv on Saturday. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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.
Also on Saturday, the US State Department confirmed that two Americans were recently killed in Ukraine’s Donbas region, but declined to provide details.
A US congressional delegation that met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv pledged continued support. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Washington and its allies intended to provide more multiple rocket launch systems.
Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report