Kyiv says Russia targets grain infrastructure with strikes on Ukraine's Odesa port

[July 19, 2023]  By Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) - Russia launched an extensive air attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa for a second night in row, but authorities vowed on Wednesday not be intimidated by the "hellish" onslaught from working to keep grain exports moving from its ports.

The attack was "very powerful, truly massive," Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said in a voice message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

"It was a hellish night," he said, adding that details on damage and casualties would come later.

Ukraine's air force said 63 missiles and drones had been launched across the country by Russia in the overnight attack, of which 37 had been shot down -- a lower proportion than usually reported after attacks over the past months.

The air force said the attack's main focus were infrastructure and military facilities in Odesa region.

Ukraine's southern military command said Russia had used supersonic missiles, including the Kh-22 that was designed to take out aircraft carriers, to strike Odesa's port infrastructure.

"(The strike) hit a grain and oil terminal, damaged tanks and equipment for loading, a fire started, all relevant services are working to deal with the consequences," the military said.

Odesa's three ports were the only ports operating in Ukraine during the war under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement which Moscow withdrew from on Monday. Russia has since conducted two major bombardments of the city.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russia was deliberately targeting grain terminals and port infrastructure.

"The main objective is to destroy the possibility of shipping Ukrainian grain," he wrote on Twitter.

The attacks on Odesa followed a pledge of retaliation by Russia after a blast on a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Monday that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.

Ukraine's southern command said warehouses in Odesa storing tobacco and fireworks were also hit.

Most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts on and off starting soon after midnight on Wednesday, with Russia striking other places, including Kyiv, targeted with drones.

"A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odesa," Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv's city military administration, said on the Telegram channel.

He said Kyiv was attacked and according to preliminary information there was some damage or casualties.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

On Tuesday, Russia's Defence Ministry said it had hit military targets in two Ukrainian port cities overnight as "a mass revenge strike" for the attack on the Crimean Bridge.

A port grain loader burns after it was damaged during Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location in Odesa region, Ukraine July 19, 2023. Press Service of the the Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS

In Crimea, annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014, a fire broke out a military training ground in the Kirovske district, forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from four settlements, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea said.

Sergei Aksyonov did not give a reason for the blaze.

Telegram channels linked to Russian security services and Ukrainian media said an ammunition depot was on fire at the base after a Ukrainian overnight air attack.

Odesa's military administration spokesman Bratchuk posted two videos of a fire in an uninhabited area, saying, "Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym."

Staryi Krym is a small town in Crimea's Kirovske district.

UN WORKS ON IDEAS FOR GRAIN EXPORTS

At the United Nations on Tuesday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there were a "number of ideas being floated" to help get Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertilizer to global markets. Moscow's decision raised concern primarily in Africa and Asia of rising food prices and hunger.

The Black Sea deal was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in July last year to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports. The two countries are among the world's top grain exporters.

For Ukraine's part, "we are fighting for global security and for our Ukrainian farmer" and working on options to keep commitments on food supply, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.

Moscow spurned calls from Ukraine to allow shipping to resume without Russian participation, with the Kremlin openly saying ships entering the area without its guarantees would be in danger.

"We're talking about an area that's close to a war zone," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Without the appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise there. So if something is formalised without Russia, these risks should be taken into account."

Russia says it could return to the grain deal, but only if its demands are met for rules to be eased for its own exports of food and fertiliser. Western countries call that an attempt to use leverage over food supplies to force a weakening in financial sanctions, which already allow Russia to sell food.

(Additonal reporting by Gleb Garanich and Valentyn Ogirenko in Kyiv, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Ron Popeski in Winnipeg; Writing by Lidia Kelly and Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Leslie Adler, Stephen Coates, Michael Perry)

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