Russia attacks the port of Odessa one day after signing the pact to export Ukrainian grain

Russia has launched a missile attack on the port of Odessa on Saturday, according to the Ukrainian military command of the region.

The aggression has occurred less than 24 hours after kyiv and Moscow signed in Istanbul two pacts sponsored by Turkey and the United Nations by which they commit to respect safe naval corridors for the export of Ukrainian grain blocked in their Black Sea ports since the invasion launched by Russia on February 24.

Odessa, on the shores of this sea, is the main outlet by sea for Ukrainian exports, especially cereals, of which the country was the fourth largest exporter in the world before the large-scale war started by Vladimir Putin.

The bombardment sows enormous doubts that the pact to rescue the blocked grain can be implemented, which, together with the reduction of grain and fertilizer exports from Russia, is fueling a global food crisis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asserted that this attack shows that "no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find a way not to apply it."

Despite this, his government has stressed that Ukraine continues with the preparations to remove the grain, included in the agreement, and that the Kremlin will not be able to completely derail it.

The Kremlin has not officially commented on the attack on the port of Odessa but has assured Turkey "to have absolutely nothing to do" with the bombing, according to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

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The attack has been carried out with long-distance and precision Kalibr missiles;

two were shot down by air defense forces and two hit port infrastructure.

A citizen of Odessa has filmed how anti-aircraft batteries intercepted two of the rockets.

The Ukrainian authorities have not specified the damage caused by the Russian aggression, but local sources quoted by

assure that a grain unloading platform and a warehouse have been destroyed.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture has confirmed that there were silos at the port with tons of grain ready to be shipped.

The bombings this Saturday may undermine the pact signed in Istanbul, built after several months of diplomatic attempts to unblock the Ukrainian grain through various channels, and occurs when Western intelligence sources and specialized analysts point out that the Kremlin forces are losing some potential in eastern Ukraine and have been placed in defensive positions in occupied southern areas.

“Russia has taken less than 24 hours to launch a missile attack on the port of Odessa, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments to the UN and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement.

In case of non-compliance, Russia will bear full responsibility for the global food crisis," said Oleg Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Moscow said,

However, the Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister, Oleksander Kubrakov, has stressed that the attack on Odessa will not completely break the pact and that kyiv continues with "technical preparations" to get the grain out.

A Guterres spokesman issued a statement "unequivocally condemning" the attack.

The head of diplomacy at the European Commission, Josep Borrell, has also condemned the attacks: “The EU strongly condemns the Russian missile attack on the port of Odessa.

Hitting a crucial grain export target a day after the Istanbul agreement was signed is particularly reprehensible and again demonstrates Russia's utter disregard for international law and its commitments."

Meanwhile, the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, has described it as an "unacceptable attack" and has denounced that Russia "continues to use food as a weapon."

The Turkish government, one of the mediators of the agreement, has, for its part, expressed "concern" in the statements of its Minister of Defense, who, however, has stressed that, according to Ukrainian officials, the impact of the missiles “in and near a grain silo” does not affect “the loading capacity of the docks” of the port, so “the activities there can continue”, suggesting that efforts should continue to be applied as agreed.

Although the Kremlin has not commented on the bombing of the Odessa port, it has assured that its troops have achieved "military objectives" in the Dnipro and Donetsk regions.

The bombing also comes a day before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov begins a tour of Africa, where a number of countries have embraced the rhetoric put out by the Kremlin that the global food crisis is to blame sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, in the face of the blockade of Ukrainian cereals due to the invasion and the reduction of Russian grain and fertilizer exports ordered by Moscow.

The pact, at risk

On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian delegations signed two separate agreements with Turkey, one signed by Russia and the other by Ukraine, to unlock 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain, trapped since the Russian invasion by the blockade of the country's ports.

The representatives of kyiv and Moscow thus avoided stamping their signature on the same document and, above all, crossing paths at any time.

However, Ukraine and its Western partners had already been skeptical on Friday regarding Russian intentions to respect the provisions of the agreement, a distrust that increases after the attack on Saturday, with which Moscow makes clear the fragility of the pact;

although on paper it is not clear whether Russia has breached it before the ink has time to dry or has waded through it.

After weeks of diplomatic negotiations, with the agreement signed in Istanbul, Moscow undertakes not to attack the Ukrainian port infrastructure used to export the grain or the ships that must transport it.

The memorandum provides for the arrival of cargo ships in Ukrainian ports through safe sea corridors, identified by the kyiv authorities to avoid the mines in its territorial waters, installed by its armed forces shortly after the Russian invasion with the intention of avoiding an attack. Kremlin amphibian, mainly against Odessa, a strategic city on the Black Sea.

The treaty includes a complicated procedure to allow the export of grain from three key ports, the most important of which is Odessa.

The other two are Chernomorsk and Yuzhni.

Skepticism

If Ukraine's attitude towards the Kremlin's compliance with the pact has been one of mistrust, Russia's has consisted of downplaying the seriousness of the food crisis caused largely by the blockade of Ukrainian cereals and Russia's own export policies.

According to data from the UN World Food Program, food shortages and shortages have pushed 47 million people around the world into "acute hunger".

Countries like Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat, obtain most of the grain they consume from Russia and Ukraine—in the Egyptian case, 70%—as does Lebanon.

Turkey, more than 80%.

According to data from the Red Cross, food prices have increased in the last six months by 187% in Sudan, 86% in Syria, 60% in Yemen and 54% in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin insists that the problem, which may worsen the severe famine already facing many countries, has been caused by Western sanctions against Russia for the invasion.

The Ukrainian authorities have also accused Moscow of stealing grain in the territories it has occupied —as an investigation by EL PAÍS showed— and of deliberately bombing the Ukrainian fields to set them on fire and thus spur the global food crisis.

Before the war, Ukraine exported some five million tons of grain every month—wheat, but also corn, barley, and sunflower oil, among others.

Last Friday's agreement should open the door for the Ukrainian authorities to be able to export a similar volume, which would contribute to the resumption of the global food supply chain, whose blockade has already had serious consequences in those developing countries that depend largely from the import of Ukrainian and Russian cereals.

The Danube transport option

The vulnerability of the Black Sea ports still under Ukraine's control gives strength to the option of exporting grain through the Danube.

The last nearly 200 kilometers of this river to its mouth mark the border between Ukraine and Romania.

The mouth was controlled by the Ukraine from the neighboring island of Snakes.

In the early stages of the war, in the last week of February, Russia occupied this islet, closing the river trade.

But Ukraine recovered the island at the end of June and the Danube has become a safe exit route to Europe.

The Ukrainian government has detailed that a daily average of four ships are leaving its three river ports.

The consulting firm Ukragroconsult estimates that 500,000 tons of basic food products could be exported by the Danube.

Ukraine exported more than 45 million tons of cereals in 2021 and now aspires to be able to sell less than half, due to the blockade of the Russian fleet, the effects of the war on the territories near the front and the fields occupied by Russia , especially those on the Black Sea and Azov Sea coasts.

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