Russia targeted the port of Odessa with cruise missiles on Saturday. The attack came barely one day after the agreement both countries reached with the United Nations to resume grain exports through Black Sea ports.
According to the Ukrainians, two cruise missiles were shot down by their air defenses, but the other two reportedly hit “port infrastructure.” A transformer station was indeed damaged in the attack.
A video on Twitter shows one of the missiles landing just a few hundred meters from the large grain silos. The port city of Odessa is one of Ukraine’s most important export ports on the Black Sea, especially for grain shipments.
Because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, exports from all Ukrainian port cities have been blocked. Up to 25 million tons of grain are stored in warehouses in Ukraine waiting to be shipped to the global market. Moreover, Western sanctions targeting Russia have affected trade in Russian products, although those sanctions were not imposed against foodstuffs.
The Ukrainian government says that President Vladimir Putin, by launching the missile attack on the port of Odessa, “spits in the face” of the United Nations and Turkey, with whom Ukraine and Russia concluded their grain export deal last Friday. UN chief Antonio Guterres and European Union foreign minister Josep Borrell strongly condemned the attack on Saturday.
Ukraine calls on the United Nations and Turkey to ensure that Russia abides by the agreement. The Istanbul deal stipulates that Russia and Ukraine will allow grain exports. Together, the two countries account for about 30 percent of the world’s wheat exports.
The Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure stated that the damage caused will have no impact on the resumption of agricultural exports.
An Ukrainian official pointed out last weekend that many people mistakenly think that grain exports can be resumed soon after unblocking the ports. That will certainly not happen, warned Alex Lissitsa, CEO of the IMC company, in an interview with AgroPortal.ua.
He noted that the sea area must be cleared of mines and damaged infrastructure must be repaired. This applies not only to storage and ports but also to supply routes. This process will take at least several weeks to several months.