Ukraine’s president calls Odessa missile strike ‘barbaric’, adding Russia cannot be trusted to implement historic deal reached to resume grain exports from Black Sea ports .
Less than 24 hours after the historic agreement was signed by Ukraine and Russia, port city of Odessa was hit by a missile strike.
In his late night address, Volodymyr Zelensky called the “cynical” attack “barbarism”, adding that it was “a blow to the political positions of Russia himself”.
“If anyone in the world could still say that some kind of dialogue with her, with Russia, some kind of agreement is needed, see what happens,” he said.
“Today’s Russian Kalibr missiles have destroyed the very possibility of such statements. The occupiers can no longer deceive anyone.”
The president also addressed the attack during a meeting with members of the US Congress in Kyiv, telling them: “It only proves one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to not apply it”.
The United Nations, European Union, United States and United Kingdom all condemned Saturday’s strikes, with British prime minister candidate Liz Truss calling the attack “appalling”.
Although Moscow did not address or acknowledge the strikes, Turkey’s defense minister said Russian officials had told Ankara that Russia had “nothing to do” with the Odessa attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
On Friday, delegates from Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement that would allow grain exports to resume after being blocked by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The representatives of the two countries refused to sit at the same table and the display of the flags of the two countries was adjusted so that they were no longer next to each other.
The agreement, which was also signed by the UN and Turkey at the ceremony in Istanbul, raises hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be alleviated.
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Sky News correspondent Alistair Bunkall explains why grain from Ukraine is blocked and why it matters
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Russia and Ukraine to fully implement the agreement which paves the way for “significant volumes of commercial food exports” from three key Ukrainian ports – Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne.
The blockade imposed by the Russian Black Sea Fleet since it invaded its neighbor has cut off supplies to markets around the world and pushed up grain prices.
