In this photo, obtained from social media released on July 19, 2022, the general view is the burning of the building after the shooting, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues where it was designated as Ukraine’s Odesa. Shows the fire engine in the scene.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine | Via Reuters
Russian missiles struck the port of Odesa in the south of Ukraine on Saturday, Ukrainian troops said to block grain exports from the ports of the Black Sea and mitigate the global food shortage caused by the war. Threatened the agreement signed just the day before.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike showed that Moscow was unreliable in carrying out the deal. However, public broadcaster Suspilne quoted Ukrainian troops that the missiles did not cause serious damage, and government ministers said preparations continued to resume grain exports from the country’s Black Sea port.
The agreement, signed by Moscow and Kieu on Friday and mediated by the United Nations and Turkey, was welcomed as a breakthrough after nearly five months of penalties since Russia invaded its neighbors. It is considered important to curb global food price hikes by permitting grain exports from ports in the Black Sea, including Odesa.
UN officials said Friday that they hope the deal will take effect in the coming weeks, and the strike in Odesa has garnered strong criticism from Kieu, the United Nations and the United States.
Turkey’s defense minister told Ankara that Russian officials had “nothing to do” with the strike at the port. A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday outlining the progress of the war did not mention a strike in Odesa. The ministry did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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According to Operational Command South, two Russian Calibble missiles attacked the area of the pumping station at Odessa Port, and two more missiles were shot down by the Air Defense Forces. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said cruise missiles were launched from warships in the Black Sea near Crimea.
Suspilne later reported that Ukrainian Southern Army Command spokesman Natalia Humeniuk said the harbor’s grain storage area had not been attacked. No casualties have been reported.
“We are continuing to make technical preparations to start exporting agricultural products from the port,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook.
The strike appeared to violate the terms of the agreement on Friday. It will allow safe access to Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports.
“This proves only one thing. No matter what Russia promises to say, we’ll find a way to not do it,” Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “clearly condemned” the reported strike, adding that all parties are committed to the grain export agreement and full implementation is essential.
“These products are urgently needed to deal with the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the world,” said spokesman Farhan Haku. Said in a statement.
“In contact with Russia, the Russians have nothing to do with the attack and are investigating the issue very closely and in detail,” Turkey’s Defense Minister Furusai Akar said in a statement. Stated.
“The fact that such an incident happened shortly after yesterday’s agreement really worried us,” he added.
Safe passage
Ukraine mined water near the harbor as part of its war defense, but under the agreement pilots guide ships along safe waterways in their territorial waters.
The Joint Coordination Center (JCC), with members of all four parties to the agreement, will monitor vessels passing through the Black Sea into the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey and towards the global market.
On Friday all sides agreed that there were no attacks on these entities and it was JCC’s job to resolve any banned activity observed.
“Russian missiles are the spit of Vladimir Putin on the faces of Guteres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Facebook.
“The Kremlin continues to weaponize food. Russia must be held accountable,” Kyiv’s US ambassador, Bridget Brink, wrote on Twitter.
Moscow denied responsibility for the food crisis and blamed Western sanctions for delaying its food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for mining an approach to the Black Sea port.
Soaring food prices
Since the February 24 invasion of Moscow, the blockade of the Ukrainian port by the Russian Black Sea Fleet has trapped tens of millions of tons of grain and stranded many ships.
This exacerbated global supply chain bottlenecks, causing western sanctions on Russia, as well as food and energy price inflation. According to the World Food Program, Russia and Ukraine are the world’s major wheat suppliers, with about 47 million people suffering from “acute hunger” due to the global food crisis.
UN officials said Friday that the deal, which is expected to be fully functional in the coming weeks, will return grain shipments from the three reopened ports to 5 million tonnes per month before the war.
Zelenskyy said on Friday that the deal would make about $ 10 billion worth of grain available for sale and export about 20 million tons of last year’s harvest. But on a broader conflict, he told The Wall Street Journal that a ceasefire would not be possible without reclaiming the lost land.
Ukraine built a bridge on Saturday in the occupied Black Sea region of Kherson, targeting Russia’s supply route, where Kyiv is preparing for a major counterattack, according to Ukrainian local officials.
The deputy minister of regional authorities set up by Russia said the bridge was hit by seven rockets from the Western-supplied High Mobile Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), but the bridge is still functioning, Russia’s TASS news agency. Said.
The claims from both sides could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Putin called the war a “special military operation” and said it aimed to demilitarize Ukraine and eradicate dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this an unfounded excuse for aggressive land acquisition.
