A Russian drone strike has hit port facilities in the Odessa region of Ukraine including the inland port of Izmail across the Danube River from NATO member Romania, the BBC reported on 2 August.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said a grain silo was damaged in Izmail with an industry source describing the damage as “serious”, Reuters wrote.
Russia started targeting Ukraine’s ports following its 17 July withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) – brokered by the United Nations (UN) and Turkey a year ago – to ensure the safe shipment of Ukrainian exports across the Black Sea.
"The enemy... is trying to destroy Ukrainian grain, attacking industrial and port infrastructure," Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army South, part of Ukraine's armed forces, said in a video statement. "Russia is trying to … strategically displace our country from the global food market."
The Danube River ports of Reni and Izmail had accounted for around a quarter of Ukraine’s grain exports before Russia pulled out of the BSGI, with cargo loaded onto barges and shipped to Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta for onward export, Reuters said.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow has hit 26 port facilities, five civilian vessels and 180,000 tonnes of grain in nine days of strikes since quitting the grain deal, with analysts saying that Ukraine's grain exports for July were down 40% from June.
Following the latest drone attacks in the Odessa region, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had urged Putin to reopen talks on the BSGI, The Guardian reported on 3 August.
In a phone call to the Kremlin, Erdoğan invited Putin to engage in fresh talks over the agreement, according to the report.
A spokesperson was quoted as saying the Turkish leader had “expressed the importance of refraining from steps that could escalate tensions during the Russia-Ukraine war, emphasising the significance of the Black Sea initiative, which he described as a bridge of peace”.
