Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
The Ukrainian port of Odesa was not operating on Sunday after the latest Russian attack on the region’s energy system, Agriculture Minister Mykola Solsky said, but added that grains traders were not expected to suspend exports.
Two other ports – Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi – authorised to export grains from Ukraine under a deal between Russia and Ukraine were partially operating, he said.
“Chornomorsk port is now operating at about 80 per cent of capacity,” Solsky told Reuters in a phone call.
A view shows a grain terminal in the sea port in Odesa after restarting grain export, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine, on 19th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko/File photo.
More than 1.5 million people in the southern Odesa region were without power after Russian drone strikes hit two energy facilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address late on Saturday.
Solsky said that Odesa port was not operating at the moment because the power generators had not been switched on yet. Grains traders continued to ship grains via the two other ports, he said.
“There are problems, but none of the traders are talking about any suspension of shipments. Ports use alternative energy sources,” Solsky said.
Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.
Odesa regional authorities said electricity for the city’s population will be restored “in the coming days,” while complete restoration of the networks may take two to three months.
“The situation is difficult to predict because we are dealing with an enemy for whom there are no principles,” the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry quoted Oleksiy Vostrikov, the head of Ukraine’s state seaport authority, as saying.
“As for exports, Russia has already slowed them down by creating problems with inspections in the Bosporus, and the lack of energy supply will certainly slow them down even more,” Vostrikov said.
Ukraine is among the world’s largest producers and exporters of corn and wheat but its exports have fallen significantly due to the Russian invasion.
After an almost six-month blockade caused by the invasion, the three Black Sea ports in the Odesa region were unblocked at the end of July under the deal between Moscow and Kyiv brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
Kyiv had sought to have the agreement expanded to include more ports, but that has not been concluded so far.
The three ports involved in the deal – Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi – have the combined capacity to ship around three million tonnes of grains a month.
Ukraine wanted to include the ports of the southern Mykolaiv region, which shipped 35 per cent of Ukrainian food exports before Russia’s invasion.
Mykolaiv was Ukraine’s second-largest grain terminal according to 2021 shipment data, so its addition would allow for a much larger volume of grains and oilseeds to be exported.
Grain exports from Ukraine in the first eight days of December fell 47.6 per cent from a year earlier to 1.09 million tonnes, agriculture ministry data showed.
A flag flies in a square in the course of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on 13th October. PICTURE: Reuters/Alexander Ermochenko/File photo
Meanwhile, the Russian-installed and exiled Ukrainian authorities said Ukrainian forces attacked occupied Melitopol in the country’s south-east on Saturday evening.
The pro-Moscow authorities said a missile attack killed two people and wounded 10, while the exiled mayor said scores of “invaders” were killed.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the attacks or deaths.
“Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, four reached their targets,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He said a “recreation centre” where people were dining was destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with HIMARS missiles.
The exiled mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said on his Telegram channel that the attack hit a church that Russians had turned into a gathering place.
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Vladimir Rogov, another Moscow-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a big fire caused by the strike engulfed the recreation centre. He posted a video of a structure in flames.
HIMARS multiple rocket launchers have been among Ukraine’s most effective weapons in the war, delivering precision fire on hundreds of targets, including Russian command posts. On Friday, the United States said it was sending more aid to Kyiv to strengthen its air defences and defeat drones.
Russia’s defence ministry on Sunday said its air defence forces had shot down five HIMARS-fired rockets in the past 24 hours near the cities of Donetsk and Melitopol.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, said Melitopol, a major industrial and transport centre occupied by Russia since March, was key to the defence of the south.
“All logistics linking the Russian forces on the eastern part of the Kherson region and all the way to the Russian border near Mariupol is carried out through it,” Arestovych said in a video interview on social media.
“If Melitopol falls, the entire defence line all the way to Kherson collapses. Ukrainian forces gain a direct route to Crimea.”
There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian army about the attacks. Earlier in the day, the central command of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces said it had been conducting strikes on Melitopol.
The Russian defence ministry also said its forces had continued offensive operations near the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region and had pushed back Ukrainian counterattacks. The Russian ministry uses the Russian name of the town, Krasny Liman.
– With NICK STARKOV in Kyiv
