Russia fires missiles at Odesa port hours after signing grain export deal
Barely 12 hours after Moscow signed a deal with Ukraine to allow monitored grain exports from Ukraine’s southern ports, Russia targeted Ukraine’s main port of Odesa – through which grain shipments would take place – with cruise missile strikes.
“The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles,” Ukraine’s operational command south wrote on Telegram, raising doubts about the viability of the deal that was intended to release 20m tonnes of grain to ward off famine in large parts of the developing world.
In one of the largest attacks on Odesa since the war began, airstrikes rattled buildings in the centre and sent up a plume of smoke that was visible across the city.
On Odesa’s seafront, beachgoers applauded as air defences brought down two of four missiles, with the remaining two hitting the port.
The attack was one of a series of Russian strikes across Ukraine, with the city of Kropyvnytskyi hit by 13 missiles on Saturday morning. The local governor, Andriy Raikovych, said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed while 13 other 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 hit killing at least three people, and in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
The sudden surge in Russian missile attacks follows several days of relative quiet in Ukraine. In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper river crossings to try to disrupt supplies to the Russians, amid claims that Ukrainian troops near the city had surrounded a
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