EU and US denounce rocket attack on Odesa port after deal struck to end blockade

Ukraine is preparing to relaunch grain exports via the Black Sea, despite Russia firing missiles at the port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to end a blockade that has strangled the Ukrainian economy and stoked fears of a global food crisis.

The European Union and United States denounced the rocket attack on the city, which Kyiv said proved Russia’s untrustworthiness.

The parallel agreements signed by Kyiv and Moscow — which were brokered and will be overseen by the United Nations and Turkey — aim to allow the safe export from Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports of some 20 million tonnes of grain that have been trapped by Russia’s blockade.

“Russia launched a missile strike on the territory of the Odesa port, and thereby showed the world its true intentions yet again,” said Ukrainian infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov of Saturday’s attack. “We do not trust Russia, but we trust our partners and allies ... We are continuing technical preparations to launch the export of agricultural products from our ports.”

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Ukraine’s port authorities called on shipping firms on Sunday to give notification of which cargo vessels they wanted to be included in “convoys” that would be guided out through coastal waters and into the open sea by Ukrainian pilot ships. The traffic will be monitored by an operations centre in Istanbul staffed by representatives of Turkey, the UN, Ukraine and Russia, and the ships may be searched in Turkish waters to ensure they are not carrying fighters or weapons.

Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that “the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and they were looking into the issue very closely. We will continue to fulfil our responsibilities under the agreement”.

On Sunday, however, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that two Russian Kalibr missiles had hit Odesa port, destroying “a military infrastructure site” and a Ukrainian naval ship.

UN secretary general António Guterres — who had hailed the deal as a “beacon of hope” — said he “unequivocally” condemned an attack that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “demonstrates Russia’s total disregard for international law and commitments.”

Read Lara Marlowe’s on-the-ground reports from Ukraine, here.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the missile strike “casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to yesterday’s deal and undermines the work of the UN, Turkey, and Ukraine to get critical food to world markets. Russia bears responsibility for deepening the global food crisis and must ... fully implement the deal to which it has agreed.”

Grain in storage

Oleh Ustenko, an economic adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine could earn $10 billion (€9.8 billion) in the coming months through sales of 20 million tonnes of grain now in storage and 40 million tonnes from its next harvest.

“If the ports were unblocked now and we say we need to move 60 million tonnes of grain ... then we would transport [it] within eight-nine months,” he said. “But with the way they are opening now and what Russia is doing in the Black Sea, yesterday’s strike shows that it definitely won’t work that way.”

Ukraine says it has almost halted Russia’s slow advance in the eastern Donbas area and is now preparing a counterattack against occupying forces in the southern Kherson region.

Mr Zelenskiy urged western states to provide Ukraine with heavier weapons to help it turn the tide on the battlefield, and described the attack on Odesa as “clear Russian barbarity that brings us even closer to receiving precisely the arms we need for our victory.”