The number of civilians in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, which has come under sustained attacks by Russian forces in the past week, has been growing since the Kremlin pulled out of a deal that would have allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea.
A Russian missile attack in Odesa on Sunday night killed one person and injured 19 others, including 4 children, according to Ukrainian officials. At least six residential buildings and an Orthodox cathedral were damaged in the attack. Dozens of cars were damaged and many residents were left without power.
“There is no excuse for Russia’s evil,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the attack in a Telegram post on Sunday. He said: “Surely there will be retaliation.”
With its busy port, Odessa is a critical economic link for Ukraine to the rest of the global economy. Although the city came under attack early in the war, there was a fleeting sense of normalcy because it had been shipping agricultural products for nearly a year despite a wartime blockade by Russia.
But that ended last week, after Russia said it would end its participation in the Black Sea Grain Agreement, a deal that helped stabilize food prices around the world. Moscow says the deal favors Ukraine.
In recent days, Russia has launched some of the fiercest attacks of the war on Odessa, destroying grain that could have fed tens of thousands of people for a year. The strikes have killed at least one civilian and injured at least two others. The Kremlin has He threatened more war, saying he would consider any ships sailing around Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea as military targets.
On Saturday, Mr Zelensky warned of a dire fallout from Russia’s actions in the Black Sea.
“Any instability in the region and disruption of our export routes will mean problems with corresponding consequences for everyone in the world,” he said in his late-night speech. Food prices may go up, he said.
A grain deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey nearly a year ago helped stabilize food prices around the world. But now, Russia’s withdrawal from the deal could again threaten food security in several countries already reeling from multiple crises, especially in the Horn of Africa.
Mr. Zelensky is pushing for more help from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. After a meeting with Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said the Ukraine-NATO Council, a new body that hopes to deepen the alliance between Ukraine and its allies, will soon meet on the situation in Odesa and the Black Sea.
In Russia, President Vladimir V. Putin on Sunday with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander G. The Kremlin said in a statement that it was decided to meet with Lukashenko. It was one of Mr Putin’s first public meetings since Mr Lukashenko said he helped broker the deal that led to the end of a short-lived uprising by the Wagner militia.
