Russia fired missiles at Ukraine’s Odessa port

• Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s key Black Sea port of Odessa on Saturday
• Europe is worried that Russia is starting to use its tight grip on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West.

Officials say that missiles from Russia hit Ukraine’s key Black Sea port of Odessa on Saturday. Kyiv called the attack a “spit in the face” of a deal the two countries signed the day before to resume grain exports that had been stopped because of the conflict.

Regional authorities said on social media that two cruise missiles hit terminal infrastructure. This casts doubt on the historic agreement that was reached after months of talks to ease a global food crisis caused by halted deliveries that drove wheat prices down.

“The Russian missile (strike) is (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s spit in the face of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep (Tayyip) Erdogan, who made enormous efforts to reach an agreement,” said Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the foreign ministry.

The first big deal between the countries since the invasion of Ukraine in February aims to help stop the “acute hunger” that 47 million more people are facing because of the war.

Nikolenko said that Russia would have to take “full responsibility for deepening the global food crisis” if the attack put the agreement in danger.

“The enemy attacked the Odessa sea port with Kalibr cruise missiles. Two of the missiles were shot down by air defences. Two hit port infrastructure,” Sergiy Bratchuk, a representative of the Odessa region said in a statement on social media.

The bad feelings between Moscow and Kyiv carried over to Friday’s signing ceremony in Istanbul, which was briefly held up by disagreements about how to place flags around the table and why Ukraine wouldn’t sign the same document as Russia.

At the luxurious Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, where Guterres and Erdogan were both present, the two sides finally signed separate but identical agreements.

Guterres had said just before the signing, “Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea — a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief,”

Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the UN, which, along with Turkey, is a co-guarantor of the deal, would be in charge of making sure it was followed.

The agreement has parts about making sure that Ukrainian grain ships stay on safe routes that keep them away from mines in the Black Sea.

Huge amounts of wheat and other grains can’t get out of Ukrainian ports because Russian warships and landmines that Kiev set up to stop an expected amphibious attack are blocking them.

Zelensky said that under the agreement, about 20 million tonnes of food from last year’s harvest and this year’s harvest would be sent abroad. He estimated that Ukraine’s grain stocks were worth about $10 billion.

Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defense Minister, told Kremlin state media that he thought the deal would start working “in the next few days” However, diplomats think that grain won’t start flowing fully until mid-August.

The United States, Britain, and the European Union all said that they liked the Istanbul agreement, but they also told Moscow to follow its rules.

Europe is worried that Russia is starting to use its tight grip on energy exports as a geopolitical weapon in its standoff with the West. This is happening at the same time that the world is worried about grain.

The grain deal was made one day after Russia turned on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline again after a 10-day maintenance break. This eased worries in Europe that the pipeline would be shut down for good.

Analysts say that the partial return of gas supplies was not enough to keep Europe from running out of energy this winter.

On another day of constant shelling across the front, the beautiful halls of Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace seemed a long way from the war zone in east Ukraine’s Donbas.

After taking full control of nearby Lugansk, Russia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone in the Donetsk area.

The United States gave Ukraine another $270 million in military aid on Friday. This money will pay for rocket systems, artillery ammunition, and armoured command posts.

On Saturday, Russian missiles hit a railway and a military airfield in the central part of Kirovograd. At least three people were killed and nine were hurt, said the governor of the area, Andriy Raikovych.

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