- Russian missile attacks devastate grain and infrastructure in Ukrainian ports
- President Putin accuses the West of using grain agreement as political blackmail
- Ukraine struggles to defend against coordinated missile strikes and drones
Officials say Russian missile attacks on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast destroyed 60,000 tonnes of food and storage infrastructure.
Minister of Agriculture Mykola Solskyi stated that a “considerable amount” of export infrastructure was inoperable.
Russia has withdrawn from an agreement guaranteeing safe passage for Black Sea exports.
President Putin of Russia accused the West of using the grain agreement as “political blackmail” on Wednesday evening.
He added that he would only contemplate rejoining the international agreement, which has been in place since last summer, “if all principles under which Russia agreed to participate in the deal are fully considered and met.”
His remarks came immediately after Russia’s defense ministry announced that, as of Wednesday at midnight (21:00 GMT), all ships bound for Ukrainian ports would be considered potential carriers of military cargo and parties to the conflict.
In addition, some northwestern and southeast regions of the Black Sea would be temporarily hazardous for shipping.
Russia attacked Ukraine’s ports in the early hours of Tuesday, hours after withdrawing from the grain pact.
More strikes targeted grain terminals and port infrastructure in Odessa and Chornomorsk, two of the three ports included in the export agreement, over the course of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The attacks, which damaged residential complexes, injured at least 12 people, including a nine-year-old child, according to military officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says missile attacks hurt “everyone in the world striving for a normal and secure life.”
Germany and France both condemned the assault. Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister of Germany, stated that by bombarding Odesa, Russian President Vladimir Putin was “hitting the world’s poorest” and depriving the world of any prospect of Ukrainian grain.
The Ministry of Infrastructure published a series of photographs depicting damage to silos and other grain storage facilities. Officials reported damage to wharves and reservoirs, but international and Ukrainian merchants suffered the greatest losses.
Russian combat strategists said the damage showed Kyiv couldn’t shoot down the majority of Russian missiles and drones.
The coordinated attack, according to officials, included Kalibr cruise missiles, Onyx supersonic missiles, and Kh-22 anti-ship missiles, as well as kamikaze drones launched from the Black Sea, Crimea, and southern Russia. Even though 37 Russian missiles and drones were shot down, a number reportedly breached Ukrainian defenses.
Russia termed its initial assault on Odesa a “massive revenge strike” in response to an attack on the Russian-built bridge across the Kerch Strait that connects occupied Crimea to Russia.
An ammo stockpile fire caused hours of explosions, evacuating 2,200 people from four communities near a military training range.
Wednesday saw further unrest in Crimea. An ammo stockpile fire caused hours of explosions, evacuating 2,200 people from four communities near a military training range.
Russian-installed officials also sealed down a 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) stretch of the Tavrida highway that connects Simferopol and Sevastopol in southern Crimea to the Kerch strait bridge. In 2017, Russia’s occupation authorities launched construction on the road.
Wednesday at approximately 04:30 (01:30 GMT), multiple explosions were detected in the area.
Officials did not explain the origin of the fire near Staryi Krim. However, social media allegations of three Ukrainian strikes were unconfirmed.
Sergei Aksyonov, Russia’s representative in Crimea, stated that the source of the fire at the military range was being investigated, but that no one was injured.
