Russia strikes Ukraine grain after ending sea deal
Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast have destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged storage infrastructure, officials say.
Agriculture Minister, Mykola Solskyi, said a “considerable amount” of export infrastructure was out of operation.
Russia has pulled out of an international grain deal in place since last summer, guaranteeing safe passage for exports across the Black Sea.
The Kremlin argued its demands for Russian exports had not been honoured.
Within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal on Monday, Russia had struck the southern port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv in the early hours of Tuesday. It followed that up with more strikes overnight into Wednesday, targeting grain terminals and port infrastructure in Odesa and further down the Black Sea coast in Chornomorsk, two of the three ports that were included in the export deal.
Odesa military spokesman, Serhiy Bratchuk, called it a “truly massive attack”. The agriculture minister said the 60,000 tonnes destroyed in the strike were “supposed to be loaded on a large-tonnage ship and sent through the grain corridor 60 days ago”.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said each missile strike was a blow not just to Ukraine, but to “everyone in the world striving for a normal and safe life”.
France and Germany also condemned the attack. Germany Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, said that by covering Odesa with a hail of bombs, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was robbing the world of any hope of Ukrainian grain and “hitting the world’s poorest”.
The infrastructure ministry published a series of photos showing damage to silos and other grain facilities.
—BBC
