Ukraine warns grain shipments may suffer if Russian attacks on ports continue

Ukraine pressed ahead on Sunday with efforts to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at easing global food shortages, but it warned that deliveries would suffer if Russia's strike on Odesa the day before was a sign of more to come.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Saturday's attack as "barbarism" that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement a deal struck just one day earlier with Turkish and United Nations mediation.

The Ukrainian military, quoted by public broadcaster Suspilne, said the Russian missiles did not hit the port's grain storage area or cause significant damage, and Kyiv said preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.

"We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports," Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a Facebook post.

According to the Ukrainian military, two Kalibr missiles fired from Russian warships hit the area of a pumping station at the port, and two others were shot down by air defence forces.

Russia said on Sunday that its forces had hit a Ukrainian warship and a weapons store in Odesa with its high-precision missiles.

The deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Friday was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough that would help curb soaring global food prices, with UN officials saying it could restore Ukrainian grain shipments to pre-war levels of five million tonnes a month.

But Zelenskyy's economic adviser warned on Sunday that the strike on Odesa signalled that could be out of reach.

"Yesterday's strike indicates that it will definitely not work like that," Oleh Ustenko told Ukrainian television.

He said Ukraine did have the capacity to export 60 million tonnes of grain over the next nine months, but it would take up to 24 months if its ports' operations were disrupted.

War enters 6th month

As the war entered its sixth month on Sunday, there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.

The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling in the north, south and east, and again referred to Russian operations paving the way for an assault on Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region.

The military said in a Sunday evening briefing note that the Russians continue efforts to assert control of the area around the Vuhlehirsk power plant, which is 50 kilometres northeast of Donetsk, in the Donbas. The note also listed several dozen settlements along the entire front line that it said had been shelled by Russia in the past 24 hours.

Four Russian Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea and aimed at the western Khmelnytskyi region were shot down on Sunday, the Ukrainian air command reported.

While the main theatre of combat has been the Donbas, Ukraine's military said its forces have moved within a firing range from Russian targets in the occupied eastern Black Sea region of Kherson, where Kyiv is mounting a counter-offensive.

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

In his nightly video address on Sunday, Zelenskyy adopted an upbeat tone ahead of a new national holiday being celebrated on July 28.

"Even the occupiers admit we will win. We hear it in their conversations all the time. In what they are telling their relatives when they call them," he said.

In a separate development, Ukraine's Health Ministry said at  least 18 medical personnel had been killed and nearly 900  medical facilities damaged or destroyed by Russia's invasion. In a social media post on Sunday, the ministry said 123 medical facilities have been totally destroyed by Russian forces, while another 746 needed repairs.

Death of Canadian 

Meanwhile, Global Affairs Canada said on Sunday it was aware of the death of a Canadian in Ukraine.

"Consular officials are in contact with the family and are providing consular assistance," spokesperson Marilyne Guèvremont said in a statement to CBC News. "Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed."

The strike on Odesa drew condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy.

Russian news agencies quoted Russia's Defence Ministry as saying that a Ukrainian warship and U.S.-supplied anti-ship missiles were destroyed.

"A docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with U.S.-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles were destroyed by long-range precision-guided naval missiles in Odesa seaport on the territory of a ship repair plant," it said.

On Saturday, Turkey's defence minister said Russian officials told Ankara that Moscow had "nothing to do" with the strikes.

Safe passage for ships

Friday's deal aims to allow safe passage in and out of Ukrainian ports, blocked by Russia's Black Sea fleet since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, in what one UN official called a "de facto ceasefire" for the ships and facilities covered.

Ukraine and Russia are leading global wheat exporters, and the blockade has trapped tens of millions of tonnes of grain, worsening global supply chain bottlenecks.

Along with Western sanctions on Russia, it has stoked food and energy price inflation, driving some 47 million people into "acute hunger," according to the UN World Food Program.

Moscow denies responsibility for the food crisis, blaming the sanctions for slowing its food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.

Ukraine has mined waters near its ports as part of its war defences, but under Friday's deal, pilots will guide ships along safe channels.

A joint co-ordination centre staffed by members of the four parties to the agreement is to monitor ships passing the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosporus Strait and on to world markets. All sides agreed on Friday there would be no attacks on them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a "special military operation" aimed at demilitarizing Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab.