ODESA, Ukraine — A string of explosions rocked Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Saturday, hitting one of the country’s most important ports less than 24 hours after Russia and Ukraine signed a deal to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain through Black Sea routes.
The strikes raised concerns about Russia’s commitment to the agreement, which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, before it could even be put into action. The deal is seen as critical for shoring up global supplies after a steep drop in Ukrainian grain exports raised fears of food shortages in poorer nations.
The string of explosions were also grim reminders of Russia’s violent fulcrum of the five month old war: signals from Moscow that it can rain destruction on any part of Ukraine at random, no matter the military situation on the front lines or diplomatic breakthroughs elsewhere.
While they denounced the attack and labeled Russia untrustworthy, Ukrainian officials said they were continuing to prepare as if the grain deal would go into effect.
Ukraine’s southern military command said on Saturday that Russian forces had fired four Kalibr cruise missiles at Odesa. “Two rockets were shot down by air defense forces, two hit port infrastructure facilities,” it wrote in a statement posted on its Facebook page. It was unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infrastructure was hit.
If confirmed, the use of the Kalibr cruise missile, a newer piece of ordnance fielded by the Russians in the last decade, is notable on its own: western intelligence officials have said in recent weeks that Russia’s stockpile of advanced weapons like the Kalibr was dwindling.
The condemnation from Ukraine of Saturday’s missile strike was swift. Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry, said on Facebook that with the strikes, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had “spit in the face” of the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey after the two “expended enormous effort to reach this agreement.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, briefing a delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives, said the strike “proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it.’’
The United Nations secretary general’s deputy spokesman denounced the strikes, saying in a statement that full implementation of the agreement was “imperative.”
There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin. The attack came a day before the Russian foreign minister was slated to start a tour of Africa, where he is expected to try to shift blame for food shortages to the West.