Today, Sunday, the sixth month of the Russian military operation in Ukraine begins, as it began on February 24, with the aim of liberating Donbass. Kyiv continues to receive Western support Military equipment to confront the Russian bear.
In the latest field developments, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Moscow had destroyed Ukrainian “military infrastructure” with strikes on the port of Odessa. “Moscow bombed the port of Odessa in Ukraine with high-precision missiles and destroyed a Ukrainian boat,” the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The Kalibr missiles destroyed military infrastructure in the port of Odessa with a high-precision strike,” Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram, in response to a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said that these strikes undermined the possibility of dialogue or understanding with Moscow.
This comes in Today, Sunday, Ukraine continued its efforts to resume the export of grain from Odessa and other ports on the Black Sea After the Russian missile attack, which raised doubts about whether Moscow will stick to an agreement aimed at alleviating global food shortages caused by the war.
President Zelensky announced that the Ukrainian forces are gradually moving towards the eastern Kherson region, which was controlled by Russia at the beginning of the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Military sources indicated that The Ukrainian army used an advanced missile system HIMARS M142 and fired at least seven shells at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region.
Simultaneously, the Donetsk Republic announced that Kyiv forces bombed the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts of Donetsk with “Grad” launchers using incendiary shells. Authorities in Donetsk said that in less than two hours, Ukrainian forces fired three shells into different areas of Donetsk, including five 155mm shells used by NATO.
The representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime said that Kyiv forces fired three “Grad” missiles at the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky regions of Donetsk. According to preliminary information, the Ukrainian forces used incendiary shells to bombard residential buildings in Donetsk. Losses are being checked.
US media quoted a US State Department spokesperson as saying that two US citizens had recently died in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. The US State Department did not provide any details about the two people or the circumstances of their deaths, but added that the US administration is in contact with their families and provides all possible consular assistance.
Yesterday, Saturday, the Ukrainian military said that Russian missiles had hit the southern port of Odessa, threatening the agreement signed Friday to lift the blockade on grain exports from Ukrainian ports overlooking the Black Sea and alleviate the global food shortage crisis caused by the war.
President Zelensky said the strike showed that Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal. But Ukraine’s state TV Sospilen quoted the Ukrainian military as saying that the missiles did not cause significant damage. A minister said that preparations are continuing to resume the export of grain from the country’s ports on the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian Southern Operations Command stated that two Russian Kalibr missiles hit an area with a pumping station in the port of Odessa and that the air defense forces shot down two others.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that the “Cruise” missiles were launched from warships in the Black Sea near Crimea.
Sospilen TV later quoted a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Military Command as saying that the port’s grain storage area had not been bombed.
The bombing of Odessa appeared to breach the terms of Friday’s agreement, which would allow safe passage to and from Odessa and two other Ukrainian ports.
In a video clip late on Saturday night, Zelensky vowed to do everything in his power to obtain air defense systems capable of shooting down missiles like the ones that bombed Odessa.
Moscow denies responsibility for the worsening food crisis, and blames Western sanctions for the slowdown in exports of food and fertilizers, and accused Ukraine of mining roads leading to the Black Sea ports.
The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, since the start of Moscow’s military operation in its neighbor’s lands on February 24, has left tens of millions of tons of grain in silos and stranded many ships.
It has also exacerbated bottlenecks in global supply chains. With sweeping Western sanctions, the pace of inflation in food and energy prices has escalated around the world.
Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers, and the war has driven up food prices. According to the World Food Program, the global food crisis has pushed nearly 47 million people into “acute hunger”.