The hope of a way out of the world food crisis will have lasted less than 24 hours. On Saturday morning, Russian missiles hit the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine, “just one day after Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement allowing the resumption of vital grain exports from the region”reports CNN.
“Two Kalibr missiles hit port infrastructure and two others were shot down by Ukrainian air defense”according to the military authorities of Odessa, explains Bloomberg. Difficult to know the extent of the damage under the“huge plume of smoke” visible in the city after the strikes.
The agreement to resume wheat exports from Odessa and two other ports on the Black Sea “was signed with great fanfare in Istanbul on Friday at a ceremony presided over by Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan and the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres”notes the American online media.
The extinguished “glimmer of hope”
“Today there is a glimmer of hope on the Black Sea, a glimmer of possibility, a glimmer of relief in a world that needs it more than ever,” said António Guterres on Friday evening from Istanbul. “That glow went out on Saturday”abstract Bloomberg.
The attack effectively calls into question the agreement “hailed the day before by UN and Turkish officials as a breakthrough after months of negotiations”estimates the Washington Post. This major step forward was to make it possible to “lifting a blockade that exposes countries around the world, especially in Africa and the Middle East, to the growing threat of famine”.
The deal was based on Russia’s pledge not to hit Black Sea ports exporting Ukrainian wheat. Odessa, the most important of them, is crucial for the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports. The two belligerents engaged “not to undertake attacks against merchant ships, civilians and port facilities”, says the American daily.
The Ukrainian authorities immediately accused the Kremlin of “sabotage the deal” to lift the Russian naval blockade. According Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Olef Nikolenko, Vladimir Poutine a “spit in the face of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, and the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who have made enormous efforts to reach this agreement”.
For his part, António Guterres “unequivocally condemns the strikes” on Odessa while calling on Russia, Ukraine and Turkey for a “full implementation” of the agreement.
The Guardian, in his live dedicated to the war in Ukraine, reports the statement of the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov:
“We are continuing technical preparations for the restart of agricultural exports from our ports.”