Ukrainian military says its air defences shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port
\n moscow
\nRussian missiles hit Ukraine\u2019s port of Odessa Saturday, in what Kyiv called a \u201cspit in the face\u201d of a day-old deal between the warring sides to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict.
\nThe Ukrainian military said its air defences had shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port, threatening the landmark agreement hammered out over months of negotiations aimed at relieving a global food crisis.
\nThe Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said the strike was \u201ca spit in the face\u201d by Russian leader Vladimir Putin against the deal brokered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.
\nGuterres \u2014 who presided over the signing ceremony on Friday \u2014 \u201cunequivocally\u201d condemned the reported attack on Odessa, his deputy spokesman said, and urged all sides stick to the deal to allow grain exports.
\n\u201cThese products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe,\u201d he said.
\nThe EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell directly blamed Russia for the strikes.
\n\u201cStriking a target crucial for grain export a day after the signature of (the) Istanbul agreements is particularly reprethensible and again demonstrates Russia\u2019s total disregard for international law and commitments,\u201d he said.
\nThere was no immediate reaction from Moscow after the attack.
\nUkrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said Russia would bear \u201cfull responsibility for deepening the global food crisis\u201d if the assault jeopardised the agreement.
\nThe first major accord between the countries since the February invasion of Ukraine aims to ease the \u201cacute hunger\u201d that the United Nations says faces an additional 47 million people because of the war.
\nHostility between Moscow and Kyiv had spilled over into Friday\u2019s signing ceremony in Istanbul \u2014 delayed briefly by disputes about the display of flags around the table and Ukraine\u2019s refusal to put its name on the same document as the Russians.
\nUkraine had entered the ceremony by bluntly warning that it would conduct \u201can immediate military response\u201d should Russia violate the agreement and attack its ships or stage an incursion around its ports.
\nThe two sides eventually inked separate but identical agreements in the presence Guterres and Erdogan at Istanbul\u2019s lavish Dolmabahce Palace.
\nGuterres, moments before the signing, hailed the agreement as \u201ca beacon of hope\u201d.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later said the responsibility for enforcing the deal would fall to the United Nations, which along with Turkey is a co-guarantor of the agreement.
\nThe agreement includes points on running Ukrainian grain ships along safe corridors that avoid known mines in the Black Sea.
\nThousands of people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour on February 24.
\nHuge quantities of wheat and other grain have also been blocked in Ukrainian ports by Russian warships and landmines Kyiv has laid to avert a feared amphibious assault.
\nZelensky said that around 20 million tonnes of produce from last year\u2019s harvest and the current crop would be exported under the agreement, estimating the value of Ukraine\u2019s grain stocks at around $10 billion.
\nRussian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Kremlin state media he expected the deal to start working \u201cin the next few days\u201d although diplomats expect grain to only start fully flowing by mid-August.
\nThe United States and Britain hailed the accord but urged Moscow to abide by its rules.
\nThe ornate halls of Istanbul\u2019s Dolmabahce Palace felt far removed from east Ukraine\u2019s Donbas war zone on another day of relentless shelling across the front.
\nRussia is trying to fight deeper into the war zone\u2019s Donetsk region after securing full control of neighbouring Lugansk.
\nRussian missile strikes on railway infrastructure and a military airfield in the central area of Kirovograd on Saturday killed at least three people and wounded 16 more, regional governor Andriy Raikovych said.
\nAt least one of the dead was a serviceman, he said earlier, in a rare admission of a military casualty in a conflict in which military deaths have been closely guarded by both sides.
\nOn Friday, the United States signed off on another $270 million in military aid to Ukraine, including rocket systems, artillery ammunition and armoured command posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian military says its air defences shot down two cruise missiles but two more hit the port moscow Russian missiles hit Ukraine\u2019s port of Odessa Saturday, in what Kyiv called a \u201cspit in the face\u201d of a day-old deal between the warring sides to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict. The Ukrainian military said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-273093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n