23 July 22
Live on the homepage now!
Reader Supported News
ALSO SEE: Russia's Hunger War
EDITOR'S NOTE: Less than 48 hours ago Turkish President Recep Erdoğan announced that he had successfully negotiated a deal to resume the export of Ukrainian grain, blockaded by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The grain is a staple in food supplies of poorer African nations and its absence has pushed millions to the brink of starvation. The agreement which Russian President Vladimir personally participated in negotiating provided that the grain would begin shipping from the Black Sea port of Odesa on Ukraine’s south west coast. This morning Russia launched an attack on the very ports the grain was supposed to have shipped from. — MA/RSN
Airstrikes raise doubts about viability of agreement as Russia also launches series of attacks across Ukraine
“The enemy attacked the Odesa sea trade port with Kalibr cruise missiles,” Ukraine’s operational command south wrote on Telegram, raising doubts about the viability of the deal that was intended to release 20m tonnes of grain to ward off famine in large parts of the developing world.
Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately confirm responsibility for the attack.
Eyewitness footage posted on social media, taken in the port area, showed one of the missiles exploding close to the seafront behind rows of containers and not far from a docked ship.
The landmark deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Friday is seen as crucial to curbing soaring global food prices, easing a supply crunch by allowing certain exports to be shipped from Black Sea ports including Odesa.
UN officials had said on Friday they hoped the agreement would be operational in a few weeks but it was not yet clear if that would still be possible, given Saturday’s strikes.
However, in one of the largest attacks on the city since the war began, explosions rattled buildings in the centre and sent up a plume of smoke that was visible across the city.
On Odesa’s seafront, beachgoers applauded as air defences brought down two of four missiles, with the remaining two hitting the port.
The attacks, coming so soon after the signing of the grain deal in Istanbul, drew immediate condemnation.
“Outrageous,” tweeted the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink. “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.”
According to a spokesperson, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, “unequivocally condemns” the strikes, adding that all parties in the Russia-Ukraine war had committed to a deal 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 around the globe,” a UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said in a statement. “Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.”
Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers and the war sent food prices soaring. A global food crisis has pushed 47 million people into “acute hunger”, according to the World Food Programme.
Friday’s deal seeks to avert famine in poorer countries by putting more wheat, sunflower oil, fertiliser and other products into world markets, including for humanitarian needs, partly at lower prices.
The attack was one of a series of Russian strikes across Ukraine, with the city of Kropyvnytskyi hit by 13 missiles on Saturday morning. The local governor, Andriy Raikovych, said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed while 13 other people were wounded in Kropyvnytskyi.
Local people in the city said the strikes targeted an airbase on the outskirts , as well as a railway substation.
Strikes were also reported in Kharkiv, where a residential area was hit killing at least three people, and in the southern city of Mykolaiv.
The sudden surge in Russian missile attacks follows several days of relative quiet in Ukraine. In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper river crossings to try to disrupt supplies to the Russians, amid claims that Ukrainian troops near the city had surrounded a Russian formation.
The fresh attacks came hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals with the UN and Turkey that were intended to avert a global food crisis.
The agreements clear the way for the shipment of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertiliser held up by the war.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly video address that the agreements offered “a chance to prevent a global catastrophe, a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us”.
Despite progress on that front, fighting raged unabated in eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.
Russian troops have also faced Ukrainian counterattacks but largely held their ground in the Kherson region just north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
A blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia’s Black Sea fleet since Moscow’s 24 February invasion has trapped tens of millions of tonnes of grain and stranded many ships.
This has worsened global supply chain bottlenecks and, along with western sanctions on Russia, stoked food and energy price inflation.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
Under the export plan signed on Friday, Ukrainian officials would guide ships through safe channels across mined waters to three ports, including Odesa, where they would be loaded with grain.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the crisis, blaming sanctions for slowing its own food and fertiliser exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its Black Sea ports.
Senior UN officials, briefing reporters on Friday, said the deal was expected to be fully operational in a few weeks and would restore grain shipments from the three reopened ports to prewar levels of 5m tonnes a month.
Special Coverage: Ukraine, A Historic Resistance
READ MORE
Follow us on facebook and twitter!
PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.