Russian missiles damage Odesa port, Ukraine says

INA-  sources 

The port of Odesa, one of the main export points for Ukrainian grain on the Black Sea, was hit by a barrage of six Russian Kalibr cruise missiles overnight, Kyiv said Tuesday — hours after Moscow pulled out of a U.N.-backed deal designed to allow Ukraine to continue feeding the world. Ukrainian air defense shot down all the Russian rockets, but “the fragments of the downed missiles and the blast wave damaged port infrastructure and several private homes” in Odesa, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said in a statement. One person was injured. Twenty-one Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones were shot down by air defense forces over the Odesa region, the statement said. Russia also targeted other areas in Ukraine’s south, including Mykolaiv, where an industrial facility was hit, according to the statement.
The barrage came after the strategic Kerch bridge that connects occupied Crimea with Russia was struck in the early hours of Monday morning, with Moscow saying the crossing had been damaged by two Ukrainian drones.
Later that day, Russia withdrew from a major deal allowing Kyiv — one of the world’s breadbaskets — to export millions of tons of grain through several Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea — Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
The agreement offered a lifeline to Ukrainian farmers and to food-insecure countries — notably in Africa — where Russia’s war on Ukraine has increased the risk of famine.
European officials sharply criticized Russia’s decision to pull out of the deal, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denouncing it as a “cynical move.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to continue exporting grain through the Black Sea “even without the Russian Federation.”

Source: Politico