Ukraine’s port rocked with explosion hours after the grain deal

Image via Eyewitness/Twitter

KYIV (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A major Ukrainian port has been rocked by explosions just one day after Moscow and Kyiv signed a historic agreement to resume grain exports.

The port city of Odesa was struck by two missiles early on Saturday morning, Ukraine’s military informed.

Russia pledged to refrain from attacking ports while grain supplies were being moved as part of the agreement reached on Friday.

After months of hostilities, the UN had referred to the deal as “a beacon of hope.”

The southern command centre of the Ukrainian military posted on social media that the port was hit by two Kalibr missiles and the air defence system had shot down two more.

Local MP Oleksiy Honcharenko stated on Telegram that the port of the city was on fire after the attack.

With one hand, these scumbags sign contracts; with the other, they launch missiles, Mr. Honcharenko wrote.

Therefore, they needed planes in order to destroy the Russian Federation’s entire Black Sea fleet. That would be the best plan for grain exports, he added.

Whether there were casualties or significant damage is unknown.

A deal allowing the transfer of millions of tonnes of grain stranded in Ukraine was reached by representatives from Kyiv and Moscow on Friday.

One of the agreements reached, according to diplomats, was that Russia would refrain from attacking ports while shipments were in route and that Ukraine would direct cargo ships through mined waters.

The agreement, which is finalised after two months, will endure for 120 days, and a coordination and monitoring centre with workers from the UN, Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine will be set up in Istanbul. If both parties concur, it may be renewed.

The head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, denounced the assault and laid an accusation on Russia of “systematically creating a food crisis.”

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, Oleh Nikolenko, continued that the Russian missile was Vladimir Putin’s spit in UN Secretary General António Guterres and President of Turkey Recep Erdogan’s face, who had made huge efforts to achieve an agreement, and to whom Ukraine was thankful.