The strike of the Russian Armed Forces on the port of Odessa was aimed at a warship of the Ukrainian Navy and a Harpoon missile depot. This was reported in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
“In the port of the city of Odessa, on the territory of a shipyard, sea-based high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a Ukrainian warship at the dock and a warehouse of Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the United States to the United States. Kyiv regime”.
According to Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russian troops attacked a military boat in the port of Odessa.
“The Kalibr missiles destroyed the military infrastructure of the port of Odessa, sending a Ukrainian military boat with a high-precision attack to the address loved by the Kyiv regime,” the official said on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that on the eve of the video message, Russian troops opened fire on the port of Odessa.
“If there is anyone in the world who can say that there is still a need for some kind of dialogue, some agreement with Russia, look what’s going on. “Today’s Russian Kalibr missiles have eliminated the possibility of such disclosures,” he said.
Zelensky described the coup as “open Russian barbarism”.
On July 23, Reuters reported, citing a statement by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, that two Russian Kalibr missiles hit the infrastructure in the port of Odessa and two more missiles were hit by air defense forces.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington “strongly condemns the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa”. According to him, “just 24 hours after the signing of an agreement to restart the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, the Russian Federation violated its obligations by attacking the port where grain and agricultural products will be transported.”
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Russian officials had told Turkish officials that Moscow had nothing to do with the attacks on the port of Odessa.
“In our meeting, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack and that they examined the issue very carefully and in detail,” Akar said.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack, reminding that the terms of the “grain agreement” previously signed in Istanbul by the UN, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey must be followed. According to this agreement, the port of Odessa is one of the three ports to which Ukrainian grain will be exported.
Natalia Gumenyuk, head of the press center of the Southern Ukrainian defense forces, said that two of the four missiles fired at the port hit the infrastructure facilities and the granary was not damaged.
On July 22, Ukraine and Turkey signed an agreement with the UN on the export of grain, other food products and fertilizers from the blocked Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny.
Representatives of Turkey, the UN and Russia also signed a mirror agreement to help lift restrictions on Russia’s food and fertilizer exports. Russia and Ukraine did not make an agreement among themselves.