Moscow has broken its silence on the Odesa strikes which drew international condemnation, saying Kalibr cruise missiles had destroyed a Ukrainian “military infrastructure facility” in the Black Sea port.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, issued a statement on Telegram on Sunday, a day after Ukraine’s military said the strategic port had come under attack.
Odesa was targeted after Moscow and Kyiv on Friday signed an agreement to ensure safe shipping of grain from Ukrainian ports.
“The enemy attacked the Odesa seaport with Kalibr cruise missiles. Two of the missiles were shot down by air defences. Two hit port infrastructure,” Sergiy Bratchuk, a representative of the Odesa region, said on social media.
It was not immediately clear whether there was damage to the port's grain-loading installations.
Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the attack showed Russia was reneging on its commitments.
“The Russian missile is Vladimir Putin's spit in the face of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who went to great lengths to reach an agreement and to whom Ukraine is grateful,” he said.
Ukrainian officials posted a video showing the aftermath of the attack. Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port’s infrastructure and air defences brought down two others, the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said.
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An elderly couple stands near a damaged school in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. EPA -
At least one person was killed after shelling hit the school, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. EPA -
A woman walks past a destroyed market near a railway station in Donetsk. Reuters -
Municipal workers clean a street in Donetsk. Reuters -
A man passes destroyed buildings in the Ukrainian town of Siversk. AFP -
A destroyed school in Siversk. AFP -
A Ukrainian serviceman passes by destroyed buildings in Siversk. AFP -
A woman's home is repaired by volunteers after being destroyed by shelling in the village of Zalissya. AFP -
People fill up water canisters in Mykolaiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Grain fields burn on the outskirts of Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo -
The mother of Ukrainian serviceman Abdulkarim Gulamov, who was killed in a fight against Russian troops in Kherson, attends his funeral in Kyiv. Reuters -
People carry pictures of Mr Gulamov at the funeral. Reuters -
Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A man walks in front of a damaged school after a missile strike hit the city of Kramatorsk. EPA -
A cyclist rides past burnt cars after a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv. AFP -
Rescuers and servicemen work at a school building damaged by a Russian military strike in Kramatorsk. Reuters -
Sasha, 12, a refugee from Ukraine at the humanitarian aid centre set up at the Global Expo exhibition hall in Warsaw, Poland. AFP -
Maksym and Andrii, 11-year-old boys, play with plastic guns at a self-made checkpoint along a motorway in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier nicknamed 'Oakland' guards his position at the front line in the Kharkiv region. AP -
Ukrainians look at destroyed Russian military equipment at an outdoor exhibition near the Church of the Three Saints in Kyiv. AFP -
A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia sits in a makeshift bunker near Avdiivka, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. EPA -
A DPR militia member monitors a section of the road near Avdiivka. EPA -
Ukrainians pass a heavily damaged shopping mall in the city of Kherson. AFP -
The rubble of a house in Moshchun village, about 20 kilometres outside Kyiv. EPA -
A resident helps a firefighter put out a fire after an air strike in the town of Bakhmut, in the breakaway enclave of Donetsk. AFP -
A woman surveys the devastation caused by an air strike in Bakhmut. AFP -
Part of a projectile fire by a rocket launcher lies embedded in a wheat field in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. AFP -
Members of the public look at a Ukrainian tank destroyed in a Russian attack, in Hostomel, north-west of Kyiv. EPA -
Burnt out cars destroyed in Russian attacks are piled up in Hostomel. EPA -
Jill Biden, US first lady, left, and US President Joe Biden welcome the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, to the White House. EPA -
Miami District Two commissioner Ken Russell, left, and Miami police chief Manuel Morales with weapons collected in the Guns 4 Ukraine initiative, at Miami City Hall in Florida. Guns bought back by Miami will be delivered to sister city Irpin, near Kyiv. EPA -
A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to a Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launcher at the front line in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A woman walks her dog in front of a block of flats hit by shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. EPA -
A Kramatorsk resident peers out of a window lined with tape to reduce the impact of shattering glass. EPA -
The damaged windows of an apartment, after shells hit a residential area in Kramatorsk. EPA -
Rescuers working on a residential building partially destroyed by missile strike in Bashtanka, Mykolaiv as the Russian war in Ukraine continues. AFP -
An Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle lies by the roadside, having been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine. AFP
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar had previously said Moscow denied carrying out any attack.
“The Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and they were looking into the issue very closely,” Mr Akar said.
A spokesman for the Mr Guterres said he “unequivocally condemns the reported strikes in Odesa”, and that all parties had committed to the deal signed on Friday for the export of grains from Ukrainian ports.
“These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need,” Farhan Haq said. “Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.”
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar attend a signing ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey. Reuters -
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, seated, at the signing ceremony. Reuters -
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, left, Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seated, second right, and Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar at the signing ceremony. Reuters -
Mr Guterres speaks during the signing ceremony. Reuters -
Mr Guterres and Mr Erdogan sit at the start of the signature ceremony for an agreement on the safe transportation of grain and foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports. AFP -
Mr Erdogan speaks at the signing ceremony. Reuters -
Mr Guterres and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stand together on the day of the deal signing in Istanbul. Reuters -
Roman Abramovich attends the ceremony in Istanbul. Reuters -
Mr Guterres said the deal would clear the way for grain shipments from three Ukrainian ports; Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, stabilising runaway prices on the global market. Reuters -
The UN chief said a co-ordination centre would be set up in Istanbul to manage Black Sea traffic. Reuters -
A Turkish national flag, a Russian national flag, a United Nations flag and a Ukrainian national flag in Istanbul, before the deal was signed. AFP
The UN and Turkey on Friday witnessed the signing of agreements by Russia and Ukraine that would open up Black Sea shipping lanes and allow about 20 million tonnes of stockpiled grain to reach markets.
The agreements cleared the way for shipments from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, Mr Guterres said at the signing ceremony in Istanbul.
US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said the attack on the Odesa port was “outrageous”.
“Russia strikes the port city of Odesa less than 24 hours after signing an agreement to allow shipments of agricultural exports. The Kremlin continues to weaponise food. Russia must be held to account,” Ms Brink tweeted.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “It is absolutely appalling that only a day after striking this deal, Vladimir Putin has launched a completely unwarranted attack on Odesa.
“It shows that not a word he says can be trusted. And we need to urgently work with our international partners to find a better way of getting the grain out of Ukraine that doesn't involve Russia and their broken promises.”
The European Union also criticised the attack. “Striking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of Istanbul agreements is particularly reprehensible and again demonstrates Russia's total disregard for international law and commitments,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
Under the agreements, Ukrainian officials will guide ships through safe channels across mined waters to the three ports where they would be loaded with grain.
Huge quantities of wheat and other grain have been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert an amphibious assault.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who attended the signing ceremony in Istanbul, told Kremlin state media he expected the deal to start working “in the next few days”, although international aid agencies and diplomats expect grain to start fully flowing by mid-August.
The deal was the first major diplomatic breakthrough of the war in Ukraine and was widely welcomed as a way to restore one of the world's most important grain routes and stabilise food prices that have soared after Russian forces invaded the country in February.
Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President, described it as a positive step that underlined the need for a political solution to the crisis.
“The grain export agreement signed by Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul is a positive step in the protracted war. This is a positive achievement for Turkish diplomacy, and it reaffirms the need to reach a political solution to the crisis. Escalation is not in the interest of the international system and an urgent peaceful solution is necessary,” Dr Gargash wrote on Twitter.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia’s military fired a barrage of missiles at an airfield and a railway centre on Saturday, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.
In Ukraine’s central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway centre. Governor Andriy Raikovych said that at least one soldier and two guards were killed. The regional administration said strikes near the city of Kirovohrad wounded another 13 people.
In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the conflict, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt supplies to the Russians.
Despite the progress on that front, fighting raged unabated in eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.
Russian troops also have faced Ukrainian counter-attacks but largely held their ground in the Kherson region north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
This week, Ukrainian forces bombarded the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River using the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), said Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-appointed regional administration in Kherson.
Mr Stremousov told Russian state news agency Tass that the only other crossing of the Dnieper, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, also came under attack from rockets launched with the weapons supplied by Washington but was not damaged.
Himars, which can send GPS-guided rockets 80 kilometres, a distance that puts it out of reach of most Russian artillery systems, has improved the Ukrainian strike capability.
In addition, Ukrainian forces shelled a bridge across the Inhulets River in the village of Darivka, Mr Stremousov told Tass. He said the bridge just east of the regional capital of Kherson sustained seven hits but remained open to traffic.
Since April, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region of eastern Ukraine where pro-Russia separatists have proclaimed independence.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow planned to retain control of other areas its forces occupy during the war.
