Russian air strikes on Ukraine kill four, damage grain and port facilities By Reuters

By Anna Pruchnicka

(Reuters) -Russian air strikes and shelling killed six folks in Ukraine and brought about “important injury” to infrastructure on the Black Sea (NYSE:) port of Odesa and to grain storage services, Ukrainian officers stated on Monday.

The air assaults had been a part of a marketing campaign that has made it more durable for main grain producer Ukraine to export its merchandise since Moscow give up a deal in mid-July that had enabled Black Sea shipments and helped fight a world meals disaster.

The strikes have intensified as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive within the south and east that has made sluggish features however might be boosted by the supply of U.S.-made Abrams tanks, introduced on Monday by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“One other huge assault on Odesa!”, Economic system Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated on X. “The assault resulted within the destruction of grain storage services and important injury to the seaport.”

Oleh Kiper, the Odesa area governor, stated the services that had been hit had contained virtually 1,000 tons of grain and that the our bodies of two males had been discovered beneath the rubble of a warehouse the place grain was saved.

Ukraine’s army stated 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones and 11 cruise missiles had been shot down in a single day, most of them directed at Odesa area. The grain storage services that had been destroyed had been hit by two supersonic missiles, it stated.

The power ministry stated injury to energy grids lower off energy to greater than 1,000 customers within the Odesa area, a reminder of air strikes that at occasions left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians with out heating and lightweight within the freezing chilly final winter.

ATTACKS ON KHERSON

A person aged 73 and a girl of 70 had been killed in a separate air strike in town of Beryslav within the southern Kherson area, officers stated.

The executive head within the metropolis of Kherson – the area’s important centre – later stated that two metropolis residents had died and two had been injured in Russian shelling.

Russian forces deserted Kherson metropolis and the west financial institution of the Dnipro River in Kherson area late final yr, however recurrently shell completely different areas from positions on the east financial institution.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry stated the newest air assault was “a pathetic try” to retaliate for a strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea navy on Friday.

Ukraine has been closely reliant on Western weapons to defend itself towards Russia after which to hit again within the counteroffensive that started in early June.

Asserting the newest arms supply, Zelenskiy stated Abrams tanks had already arrived in Ukraine and had been being ready for motion.

“I’m grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements! We’re on the lookout for new contracts and increasing our provide geography,” stated Zelenskiy, who visited the U.S. final week.

Ukraine’s counterattack has included stepping up its assaults which Moscow says have hit targets in Russia and Crimea, the peninsula seized and annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The Russian Defence Ministry stated on Monday its air defences had shot down drones over the northwestern a part of the Black Sea, over Crimea, and over the Russian areas of Kursk and Belgorod. It talked about no deaths.

Kyiv didn’t touch upon the Russian reviews, and Moscow provided no touch upon the air strikes in Ukraine.

Kyiv says the air strikes towards port and grain services are meant to stop it exporting grain to the world, and international merchants comply with them intently for worry of additional disruption to world markets.

Ukraine is more and more delivery grain alongside the Danube River, by highway and by prepare, and has established a “humanitarian hall” hugging the Black Coastline to ship grain for African and Asian markets. The primary two vessels carrying grain to make use of the hall left the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk final week.