Odesa region ports hit in apparent Russian bid to kill off grain deal

Russia failed to hit its targets in Kyiv but has successfully struck ports in the Odesa region with suicide drones in the latest wave of night-time strikes to follow the Kremlin’s decision to pull out of a UN-backed deal safeguarding the world’s food supply.

Fires were said to be raging at the sites of important Ukrainian infrastructure at undisclosed locations in the southern area while Ukraine’s defence ministry said a grain silo in Izmail, an inland port across the Danube River from Romania, had been badly damaged.

The shooting down of 23 Iranian-Shahed drones on Tuesday night, including 10 fired at Ukraine’s capital, highlighted the crucial role of Ukraine’s air defences, in particular the patriot systems donated by the US, but the gaps elsewhere in the country are becoming clearer every day.

Russia has offered free grain to African countries while targeting Ukraine’s capacity to store and export foodstuffs since pulling out a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN to ensure that food and fertiliser from Ukraine, one of the major breadbaskets of the world, could leave its southern ports.

The latest attacks on the ports and industrial infrastructure, seemingly designed to kill off the possibility of any future deal with Kyiv on grain supply, was condemned by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, who said Russia had no empathy for people around the world reliant on Ukrainian products.

She tweeted: “Homes. Ports. Grain silos. Historic buildings. Men. Women. Children. Round-the-clock and intensifying Russian strikes on Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson make it clear once again Russia has no desire for peace, no thought for civilian safety, and no regard for people around the world who rely on food from Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office released pictures showing a war crimes investigator outside a ruined building in Izmail, where there was evidence of at least two damaged silos from which wheat could be seen spilling out.

The port, across the river from Romania, a Nato member, has served as the main alternative route out of Ukraine for grain exports since mid-July, when Russia reimposed its de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

Ukraine’s Danube River ports accounted for about a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of the deal and have since become the main route out.

“The enemy … is trying to destroy Ukrainian grain, attacking industrial and port infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are hits, unfortunately the silo was damaged, and fires broke out at the site,” Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian volunteer army south, part of Ukraine’s armed forces, said in a video statement. “Russia is trying to cut Ukraine out of the future grain agreement and, most importantly, to strategically displace our country from the global food market”.

Ukraine’s ministry of defence said in a statement: “Another elevator in the port of Izmail, Odesa region, was damaged by Russians. Ukrainian grain has the potential to feed millions of people worldwide.”

In Kyiv, Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said all the drones targeted at the capital had been intercepted but that falling debris had damaged some non-residential buildings.

He said: “Groups of drones entered Kyiv simultaneously from several directions. However, all air targets – more than 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – were detected and destroyed in time by the forces and means of air defence.”

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said no one was killed or wounded in the attack but that “parts of a drone fell on the playground” in the Golosiivsky district.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, speaking at a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg last week, offered African leaders attending the event the gift of thousands of tonnes of grain.

“We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain each in the next three to four months,” Putin told the summit, as participants applauded. Others in need, such a Sudan and Chad were not mentioned. Global wheat prices have increased by about 10% in the past two weeks.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said that a “handful” of donations from the Kremlin will not fix the problem of a dearth of global supply since Russia pulled out of the grain deal.