Moscow did not comment directly, but according to Turkey’s defense minister, Russian officials told Ankara they had nothing to do with the attack. The attack did not damage a grain warehouse at the port, a Ukrainian military spokesman said this afternoon. Transport Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that Ukraine was continuing preparations to resume export of crops. The attack was condemned by Kyiv and some world leaders.

“It is clear that the enemy’s aim was to specifically attack the commercial port of Odessa. Four Kalibr missiles were headed in that direction. Two of them were shot down by anti-aircraft defenses, two hit the infrastructure object of the port itself. The gas station was hit,” the spokesman said. military officer Natalija Humenjukova told reporters, according to the Unian agency. According to him, the attack did not cause significant damage or cause any casualties.

“We are continuing to make technical preparations to launch exports of agricultural products from our ports,” he wrote while Kubrakov on facebook.

In today’s statement about the development of military aggression in a neighboring country, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not mention the attack in Odessa. The department did not respond to requests for comment, according to Reuters records. “Russia told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar later told Reuters, also calling on all sides to continue cooperation on the grain deal.

Today’s attack threatens a landmark deal to unblock Ukraine’s grain exports from Black Sea ports and alleviate global food shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Friday, representatives of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul to allow grain exports from the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne. The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, envisages that grain ships will sail through maritime humanitarian corridors.

Spit in the face

Spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy By Nicolenko on Twitter he wrote, that if Russia does not comply with the agreement, it will be responsible for the global food crisis. He called today’s Russian attack a “spit in the face of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who greatly helped reach an agreement and to whom Ukraine is grateful.” “It only proves one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it finds a way not to fulfill it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded, according to Reuters, in a video posted on the social network Telegram.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský made a similar statement about Indonesia. “The Kremlin has once again shown how unbelievable it can be and the agreement means nothing,” wrote the Czech head of diplomacy. The attack was condemned by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, EU diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, and the American ambassador in Kyiv, Bridget Brinková.

In line with Ukrainian interests

Prior to that, Zelenskyy said in his regular speeches that the grain export agreement is fully in line with Kyiv’s interests and will allow the country to export stocks of this crop as well as fresh harvests, which will allow to avoid global food shortages. crisis. Ukraine, sometimes called Europe’s granary, is an important supplier of grain and vegetable oils to world markets.

In addition, the Ukrainian president said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the losses of the Ukrainian army have decreased recently. According to him, about 30 soldiers die on the battlefield every day, in early June Kyiv spoke of 100 to 200 soldiers dying per day. The situation improved regarding weapons supplies from the West, thanks to Ukrainian troops being able to stabilize the situation in Donbas in the east of the country, Zelenskyy said. He did not reveal the total loss of the army.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its latest analysis of combat developments that the Russians carried out a ground offensive in southern Ukraine, near the border between the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, which they had managed to control almost entirely. In Donbass, Russian invading forces carried out ground attacks east of the city of Siversk and around Bakhmut.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, Ukrainian forces are continuing retaliatory attacks against Russia in the Kherson region. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Russia had fired missiles into the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine, hitting an air base and rail infrastructure, killing at least three people and wounding others.