Following an extensive 3.5-hour onslaught by Russian drones, two individuals were conveyed to a medical facility after the port located in Ukraine’s Odessa province suffered severe damage on Sunday, as per official reports.
The assault on the Reni seaport transpired merely a day before a scheduled meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish equivalent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The duo intended to deliberate on the recommencement of food consignments from Ukraine, under a Black Sea grain pact previously renounced by Moscow in July.
The Russian contingent offloaded 25 Shahed drones, Iranian-made lethal devices, along the Danube River in the wee hours of Sunday. The Ukrainian air force responded swiftly, successfully intercepting 22 of these airborne threats, as disclosed on Telegram.
In an elucidative statement, the Chief of Staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Andriy Yermak, cast the offensive as a calculated Russian stratagem aimed to “provoke a global food crisis and widespread famine.”
Contrarily, Russia’s Defense Ministry argued that the aggression targeted fuel storage installations catering to military supply needs.
The keenly anticipated conference between Putin and Erdogan will transpire in Sochi, located on the southwestern extent of Russia, this coming Monday.
Turkish dignitaries have emphasized that the discussions would address the rekindling of the Black Sea grain undertaking, which Moscow dissociated from roughly a month and a half ago.
The arrangement, which had seen approval from the United Nations and Turkiye in July 2022, ensured the safe passage of nearly 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and a plethora of commodities through three Ukrainian ports, even while being in the throes of a Russian onslaught.
Nonetheless, Moscow absolved itself from the agreement following assertions of neglect towards a concurrent accord aimed at removing hindrances to Russian food and fertilizer exportations.
Challenges concerning shipping and insurance limits have been vocalized by Moscow, lamenting the impairment to its agricultural commerce, notwithstanding notable wheat shipment increments from the previous year.
The Sochi summit emerges in the wake of conversations between Russian and Turkish foreign ministers last Thursday, an encounter that culminated with Russia submitting a list of prerequisites that the West must fulfill for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to recommence.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian shelling on Sunday resulted in two fatalities and injured two others in the village of Vuhledar, situated in the Donetsk region.
Eight settlements across the region felt the brunt of artillery fire, according to a post by Ukraine’s National Police on Telegram.
Moreover, on Sunday, Ukrainian prosecutors revealed the inauguration of a war crimes inquiry into the demise of a law enforcement official, victim to Russian shelling in the town of Seredyna-Buda the preceding afternoon.
Additionally, the hostile incident, which struck Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy area, left two police officers and a civilian wounded.
