Breaking: Russia admits missile strike on Odesa port
Russian missiles destroyed Ukrainian “military infrastructure” in a strike on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, crucial for grain exports, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said Sunday. The strik
Russian missiles destroyed Ukrainian “military infrastructure” in a strike on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, crucial for grain exports, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman said Sunday.
The strike Saturday came a day after Kyiv and Moscow signed a landmark agreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a global food crisis.
“Kalibr missiles destroyed military infrastructure in the port of Odesa, with a high-precision strike,” Maria Zakharova said on Telegram in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said dialogue with Moscow was becoming increasingly untenable after the attack.
Zakharova said the strike destroyed a Ukrainian “patrol boat”.
On Saturday, Ukraine accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having “spit in the face” of the deal to unblock grain exports brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
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Zelensky claimed the strikes on Odesa showed Moscow could not keep its promises.
But Turkey said Saturday that Russia denied any attack on the port.
“The Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and they were looking into the issue very closely,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.
Ukraine’s Western allies including Britain and the United States condemned the attack.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack cast “serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment” to the deal.
The impact of unmanned vehicles in the air, on the ground, and at sea could not have been predicted five years ago but their influence on the Ukrainian battlefield released the genie from the bottle.
The Ukrainian military had said its air defences had shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port Saturday.
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Bohdan Nahaylo, Chief Editor of Kyiv Post, is a British-Ukrainian journalist and veteran Ukraine watcher based between Kyiv and Barcelona. He was formerly a senior United Nations official and policy adviser, and director of Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service.
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