Ukraine: Attack on Odesa will affect grain exports
Russia claims strike on strategic port hit military targets
Ukraine warned yesterday that grain exports may not reach pre-war levels after Russia fired missiles at its main Black Sea port. Russia said it destroyed a warship and a stash of anti-ship missiles when it struck Odesa just hours after signing an agreement to break the grain blockade.
The deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Saturday was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough to curb soaring global food prices by restoring Ukraine grain shipments to 5 million tonnes a month.
But Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s economic adviser said that could be out of reach.
“Yesterday’s strike indicates that it will definitely not work like that,” Oleh Ustenko told Ukrainian television.
The Ukrainian military told the public broadcaster that the missiles did not hit the port’s grain-storage area or cause significant damage, and preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.
“We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports,” said Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Infrastructure Minister.
The Kremlin at first denied it had fired at Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port, the day after it had signed a deal to allow essential grain supplies to reach vulnerable countries.
But yesterday the Foreign Ministry said: “In the seaport of Odesa, seabased high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse of Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the United States to the Kyiv regime.”
The Kremlin had signed the deal to lift the blockade in Istanbul. It was negotiated by the United Nations and Turkey and hailed as a vital breakthrough to avoid a global famine.
The missile attack drew international condemnation of Russia and warnings that the deal may collapse before it had even started.
“Russia doesn’t break its patterns of breaking agreements,” said Lesia
Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP. “Yes, I was hopeful, along with all those countries waiting for the grain. But no surprises from Moscow, just their usual terrorist aggressive behaviour.”
The UN has said that grain supplies from Ukraine are critical. Ukraine accounts for about 16 per cent of global grain supplies and prices have soared since the start of the war when Russia imposed a blockade.
The UN has said Ukraine’s grain exports could return to pre-war levels by the end of August. Ukraine’s defence of Snake Island, which guards shipping lanes in the Black Sea, and the arrival of US long-range artillery helped force Russia to negotiate to lift its blockade, but analysts have also said that lobbying from African and Middle Eastern allies may also have influenced the Kremlin.
One of the biggest purchasers of Russian and Ukrainian grain is Egypt, which hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks yesterday at the start of a tour that includes Ethiopia, Uganda and the Congo Republic.
The Egyptian Government has maintained close relations with Russia and this week Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear agency, started work on Egypt’s long-delayed first nuclear power station.
Lavrov said sanctions imposed by the West had created a global shortage of grain. “On the topic of food, the West must eliminate the problems it has created itself,” he said.
Some analysts have said that the Kremlin stands to benefit from lifting its blockade of Ukraine’s ports. It will earn more cash from grain and fertiliser sales, which will help fund its war in Ukraine, and also earn kudos among its allies in North Africa and the Middle East who are facing potential civil unrest with food price rises.
Elsewhere yesterday, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian shelling continued to kill and wound civilians in Ukraine’s south and east.
The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, one of two that make up Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbas and a key focus of
Russia’s offensive, said two civilians had been killed and two more wounded over the previous 24 hours.
The British military reported yesterday, in its daily intelligence update, that Russia was making “minimal progress” in its Donbas offensive, which it said remained small-scale and focused on the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian military’s general staff confirmed in its regular update that Russia was “conducting military operations to create conditions” for an assault on Bakhmut, while firing on surrounding settlements and battling Ukrainian defenders for control of a nearby thermal plant.
In Ukraine’s south, regional officials said at least five civilians were wounded by Russian shells in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv on Sunday and yesterday.
“Also, as a result of the scattering of munitions and their fragments, fires occurred in open areas in the city,” said Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region. — Agencies