Russia strikes Ukraine grain exporting port ahead of Putin-Erdogan talks

By REUTERS

Published: SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 03:32

Ukrainian firefighters put out burning grass, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near a front line, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 3, 2023. (photo credit: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters) — Ukrainian firefighters put out burning grass, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near a front line, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 3, 2023.

(photo credit: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

After quitting the Black Sea grain deal, Moscow has launched frequent attacks on the ports of the Danube River, which has since become Ukraine's major route for exporting grain.

Russia launched an overnight air attack on one of Ukraine's major grain exporting ports, Ukrainian officials said, hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, were due to hold talks.

Ukraine's air force urged residents of Izmail port, one of Ukraine's two major grain-exporting ports on the Danube River in the Odesa region, to seek shelter after midnight on Monday. Some Ukraine media reported the sound of blasts in the area.

Putin and Erdogan were to meet on Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi as Ankara and the United Nations seek to revive a Ukraine grain export deal that helped ease a global food crisis. Ankara called the talks vital for the deal.

Leaving the Black Sea Grain Deal

Russia quit the deal in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey - complaining that its own food and fertilizer exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.

A grain warehouse heavily damaged by a Russian drone attack is seen at a compound of a port on the Danube, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine August 16, 2023. (credit: Press Service of the Operational Command South of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS)

After quitting the Black Sea grain deal, Moscow has launched frequent attacks on the ports of the Danube River, which has since become Ukraine's major route for exporting grain.

Monday's attack - the scale of which was not immediately known - followed Russia's strikes on Sunday on the other major Danube port of Reni, in which the port's infrastructure was damaged and at least two people injured.