An agreement already in danger? Russian strikes targeted the port of Odessa on Saturday, with Ukraine accusing Vladimir Putin of ‘spitting in the face’ of the UN and Turkey and jeopardizing the application of the agreement signed the day before on the recovery cereals blocked by the war. According to Ukraine, shots hit a grain processing plant in Odessa.
Odessa is the largest city and the most important port on the entire Black Sea coast, crucial for the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports in the face of the risk of famines in the world. “Hitting a crucial grain export target one day after the signing of the Istanbul Accords is particularly reprehensible and once again demonstrates Russia’s utter disregard for international law and commitments”, denounced the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
By firing cruise missiles at the port of Odessa, the Russian president “spit in the face of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep (Tayyip) Erdogan, who have made enormous efforts to achieve this agreement,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also said. Ukraine immediately warned that Russia would assume “full responsibility” if the agreement on grain exports failed.
A spokesman for the administration of the Odessa region, Sergey Brachuk, said that two of the cruise missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft defense. Central Ukraine was not spared either with a resumption of Russian strikes on Saturday which killed three people, after a lull in the fighting which focused on Donbass (east). Thirteen Russian cruise missiles launched from the sea fell near the town of Kropyvnytskyi located in the Kirovograd region (center), announced its governor Andriy Raikovych.
Accord fragile
He said railway infrastructure and a military airfield were targeted near the town of Kropyvnytskyi. “Nine Ukrainian soldiers were injured and one soldier was killed,” he said. These strikes come the day after the agreement on cereals that the two belligerents initialed in two identical but separate texts, at the request of the Ukrainians who refused to sign with the Russians.
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The African Union had “welcomed” a little earlier this agreement, hailing a “welcome development” for the continent which faces an increased risk of famine. The agreement should make it possible to export between 20 and 25 million tonnes of grain blocked in Ukraine.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia – two countries which notably provide 30% of world wheat exports – having led to a surge in cereal and oil prices, hitting hard the African continent which is very dependent on these countries for its supply. . This rise in prices has worsened the situation of countries already facing a food crisis, particularly in the Horn of Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti) which is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.