Russia attacks Ukrainian port of Odessa in ‘hellish’ attack

July 19 (Reuters) – Russia launched a massive airstrike on the Ukrainian port of Odessa for the second night in a row, which a Ukrainian official on Wednesday described as “hellish”, but authorities vowed not to be intimidated and to continue working to export grain.

The attack was “very powerful, truly massive,” Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odessa’s military administration, said in a voice message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

“It was a hellish night,” he said, adding that details about the damage and casualties would come at a later date.

The attacks on Odessa, one of Ukraine’s main ports for the export of grain, followed a promise of retaliation by Russia after an explosion on a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula on Monday that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.

Shortly after the bridge was hit on Monday, Moscow he retired of a year-old Black Sea grain deal that allowed for the safe export of grain from Ukraine, a move the United Nations says risks creating worldwide famine.

“(They) are trying to scare everyone, especially those who want to work for the grain broker…Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations,” Bratchuk said.

“But I think that all normal and rational people will look and say: Odesa was not afraid, is not afraid and will not be afraid, we will work.”

Most of Ukraine was under intermittent airstrike alerts starting at midnight Wednesday, and Russia struck other locations, including a drone strike on kyiv.

“A difficult night of air strikes for the whole of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odessa,” Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration for the city of Kiev, said on the Telegram channel.

He said that kyiv was attacked and, according to preliminary information, there was some damage or casualties.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 37 of 63 targets in the southern Odessa region, including 23 suicide drones and 14 cruise missiles targeting critical infrastructure and military installations. It was a much lower success rate than Ukraine usually reports in countering Russian airstrikes.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had hit military targets in two Ukrainian port cities overnight as “a massive revenge attack” for the attack on the Crimean Bridge.

In Crimea, annexed by Moscow to Ukraine in 2014, a fire A military training camp in Kirovske district erupted, forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from four settlements, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea said.

Sergei Aksyonov did not give a reason for the fire.

Telegram channels linked to Russian security services and Ukrainian media said an ammunition depot was on fire at the base after a nighttime Ukrainian airstrike.

Odessa military administration spokesman Bratchuk posted two videos of a fire in an uninhabited area, saying: “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym.”

Staryi Krym is a small town in the Kirovske district of Crimea.

UN WORKS ON IDEAS FOR THE EXPORT OF GRAINS

At the United Nations on Tuesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there was a “number of ideas that are floating around” to help bring Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertilizer to world markets. Moscow’s decision raised concerns mainly in Africa and Asia over rising food prices and hunger.

The Black Sea deal was brokered by the UN and Turkey in July last year to combat a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports. The two countries are among the world’s leading cereal exporters.

On Ukraine’s side, “we are fighting for global security and for our Ukrainian farmer” and working on options to keep commitments on food supplies, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address on Tuesday.

Moscow has rejected Ukraine’s calls to allow shipments to resume without Russian involvement, and the Kremlin has said openly that ships entering the area without its guarantees would be in danger.

“We are talking about an area that is close to a war zone,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Without proper security guarantees, certain risks arise there. So if something is formalized without Russia, these risks have to be taken into account.”

Russia says it could return to the grain deal, but only if its demands for loosening rules for its own food and fertilizer exports are met. Western countries call that an attempt to use leverage on food supplies to force a loosening of financial sanctions, which already allow Russia to sell food.

Additional reporting by Gleb Garanich and Valentyn Ogirenko in Kyiv, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, and Ron Popeski in Winnipeg; Written by Lydia Kelly and Philippa Fletcher; Edited by Leslie Adler, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry

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