Ukrainian President Volodymyr<\/p>\n
Zelensky denounced a missile strike on the port of Odessa as “Russian
\nbarbarism” just a day after the warring sides struck a deal to resume cereal
\nexports blocked by the conflict.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian military said its air defences had shot down two cruise
\nmissiles but two more hit the port Saturday, threatening the landmark
\nagreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a
\nglobal food crisis.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said the strikes on Odessa showed Moscow could not be trusted to
\nkeep its promises.<\/p>\n
“Today’s Russian missile attack on Odessa, on our port, is a cynical one, and
\nit was also a blow to the political positions of Russia itself,” Zelensky
\nsaid in his nightly address, adding dialogue with Moscow was becoming
\nincreasingly untenable.<\/p>\n
“This apparent Russian barbarism brings us even closer to obtaining the very
\nweapons we need for our victory,” Zelensky added.<\/p>\n
The strike came a day after Moscow and Kyiv agreed a deal brokered by Turkish
\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.<\/p>\n
Odessa is one of three export hubs designated in the agreement and Ukrainian
\nofficials said grain was being stored in the port at the time of the strike,
\nalthough the food stocks did not appear to have been hit.<\/p>\n
Guterres — who presided over the signing ceremony on Friday —
\n“unequivocally” condemned the attack, his deputy spokesman said, and urged
\nall sides to stick to the deal.<\/p>\n
“These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and
\nease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe,” he said.<\/p>\n
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell directly blamed Russia for the
\nstrikes.<\/p>\n
“Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of
\n(the) Istanbul agreements is particularly reprehensible and again
\ndemonstrates Russia’s total disregard for international law and commitments,”
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the attack was “absolutely appalling” and
\n“completely unwarranted”.<\/p>\n
The United States also “strongly condemned” the attack, with Secretary of
\nState Antony Blinken saying it “casts serious doubt on the credibility of
\nRussia’s commitment to yesterday’s deal”.<\/p>\n
There was no official comment from Moscow, but Turkish Defence Minister
\nHulusi Akar said Russia had denied carrying out the attack.<\/p>\n
“The Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack
\nand they were looking into the issue very closely,” Akar said in comments to
\nstate news agency Anadolu.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to fulfil our responsibilities under the agreement we
\nreached yesterday,” he added.<\/p>\n
Regional governor Maksym Marchenko said the strikes left people wounded and
\ndamaged port infrastructure in Odessa, without specifying the number or
\nseverity of the injuries.<\/p>\n
– 20 million tonnes of wheat –<\/p>\n
The first major accord between the countries since Russia’s February invasion
\nof Ukraine aims to ease the “acute hunger” the UN says an additional 47
\nmillion people are facing because of the war.<\/p>\n
Ukraine at the signing warned it would conduct “an immediate military
\nresponse” should Russia violate the accord and attack its ships or stage an
\nincursion around its ports.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said responsibility for enforcing the deal fell to the UN, which
\nalong with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.<\/p>\n
The deal includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe
\ncorridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.<\/p>\n
Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports
\nby Russian warships and the mines Kyiv laid to avert a feared amphibious
\nassault.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year’s
\nharvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement,
\nestimating the value of Ukraine’s grain stocks at around $10 billion.<\/p>\n
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media he expected
\nthe deal to start working “in the next few days” although diplomats expect
\ngrain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.<\/p>\n
– Strikes on central Ukraine –<\/p>\n
Russia is trying to fight deeper into the eastern Donetsk region after
\nsecuring full control of neighbouring Lugansk.<\/p>\n
The US State Department on Saturday said two Americans had died in the area,
\nwithout saying whether the pair were in the country for combat purposes.<\/p>\n
Russian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in
\nthe central area of Kirovograd on Saturday also killed at least three people
\nand wounded 16 more, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.<\/p>\n
At least one of the dead was a serviceman, he said earlier — a rare
\nadmission of a military casualty as combat deaths have been closely guarded
\nby both sides.<\/p>\n
Russia also pursued an artillery campaign over Ukraine’s second city,
\nKharkiv, with attacks wounding one woman, the presidency said. An elderly
\nfarmer was killed in further shelling in Sumy, northwest of Kharkiv.<\/p>\n
Two others, including a teenager, were wounded in strikes on Mykolaiv, the
\nlargest city under Ukrainian control near Russian-occupied Kherson and the
\nsouthern front, which has been shelled persistently since the beginning of
\nthe invasion.BSS\/AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a missile strike on the port of Odessa as “Russian barbarism” just a day after the warring sides struck a deal to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict. The Ukrainian military said its air defences had shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port Saturday, threatening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4","category-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29019,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29016\/revisions\/29019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deshnews24.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}