Missiles hit Odesa, striking key global grain supplies port

ODESA, Ukraine — A string of explosions rocked Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Saturday, hitting one of the country’s most important ports less than 24 hours after a deal was signed to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain through Black Sea routes.

The strikes risk undermining the deal to facilitate the shipping of Ukrainian grain, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, before the agreement could even be put into action. The deal was seen as critical for shoring up global supplies after a steep drop in Ukrainian grain exports raised fears of food shortages in poorer nations.

Ukraine’s southern military command said Saturday Russian forces had fired four Kalibr cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port. “Two rockets were shot down by air defense forces, two hit port infrastructure facilities,” it wrote in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

Officials said it was the first time since the war began the port in Odesa had been targeted.

The condemnation from Ukraine was swift. Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry, said on Facebook that with the strikes, President Vladimir Putin of Russia had “spit in the face” of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey after the two “expended enormous effort to reach this agreement.”

Guterres’ deputy spokesperson denounced the strikes, saying in a statement full implementation of the agreement was “imperative.”

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. The attack came a day before the Russian foreign minister was slated to start a tour of Africa, where he is expected to try to shift blame for food shortages to the West.

The blast wave from the missiles hitting the port could be felt miles away, although it was unclear precisely where they struck.

It was unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infrastructure was hit. Russia may not have technically violated the deal since it did not pledge to avoid attacking the parts of the Ukrainian ports not directly used for grain exports, according to a senior U.N. official. If there were military targets nearby, Russia may have been trying to exploit a loophole.

Still, the damage appeared to be extensive, and Mykola Solskyi, the country’s agriculture minister, said the strikes would affect Ukraine’s efforts to export grain.

“If you attack a port, you attack everything,” he said. “You use a lot of the same infrastructure for oil, for grain. It has an impact on everything — it doesn’t matter what you hit.”