2023-08-16 10:32:33
kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has resumed attacks on grain infrastructure in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, authorities said Wednesday. Several drones overnight attacked warehouses and ports along the Danube river, which Kiev has increasingly used to transport its grain to Europe, following Moscow broke a crucial war deal to export it across the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, a full cargo ship that had been stuck in the port of Odessa since the large-scale invasion of Russia more than 17 months ago has set sail and is heading for the Bosphorus through the Black Sea using a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for the traffic of merchants.
The Ukrainian economy, pressured by the war, is highly dependent on agriculture. Its agricultural exports, like Russia’s, are also crucial to global supplies of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other foods on which developing countries depend.
After the Kremlin last month ripped off a deal brokered last summer by the United Nations and Turkey to ensure the safe export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, Kiev has sought to reroute goods across the Danube and road and rail links to Europe. . But transport costs are much higher for those routes, some European countries have expressed qualms regarding the consequences for the local price of grain and the Danube ports cannot handle as much volume as the maritime ones.
The main targets of the overnight drone strike were port terminals and grain silos, Odessa Governor Oleh Kiper said. That included ports in the Danube delta. Anti-aircraft defenses managed to intercept 13 drones, Kiper said.
In attacks in recent weeks, Russia has hit ports in the Danube delta, which lie just 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Romanian border. The Danube is the second longest river in Europe and a crucial transportation route.
Meanwhile, the container ship from Odessa was the first ship to set sail since July 16, according to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister. She had been in Odessa since February 2022.
The Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte was navigating a temporary corridor Ukraine had asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify. The United States has warned that the Russian military is preparing possible attacks on civilian cargo ships in the Black Sea.
Underwater mines also make the journey dangerous and insurance costs are likely to be high for ship operators. Ukraine told the IMO that it would offer “guarantees of compensation for damages.”
A Russian ship fired warning shots last Sunday at a Palau-flagged cargo ship in the southern Black Sea. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Sukru Okan was sailing north to the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube.
Tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed that the Joseph Schulte was heading south.
The Joseph Schulte was carrying more than 30,000 tons of merchandise in 2,114 containers, including food products, according to Kubrakov.
The corridor, he said, will be used mainly to evacuate ships stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Pivdennyi since the outbreak of the war.
On the front lines, the Ukrainian authorities announced another milestone in the tough Ukrainian counteroffensive. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops had retaken a town in the eastern Donetsk region.
The town of Urozhaine is near Staromaiorske, a village that Ukraine also claimed to have recently recaptured. It was not possible to independently verify those claims.
Ukraine appears to be breaking through Russian forces in the south, but faces strong defensive lines and advances without air support.
Also on Wednesday, the Russian military said it shot down three drones in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, and blamed the attack on Ukraine. No deaths or injuries were reported.
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Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
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