Russia has bombed Ukraine’s port cities for a third consecutive night after warning that it would treat grain ships as military targets, a threat the EU said demonstrated Moscow’s “barbarian attitude” as it attacks food supplies.
The strikes on the Black Sea port city of Odesa and nearby Mykolayiv early on Thursday killed at least two people while at least 23 were injured, Ukrainian authorities said.
The three nights of air strikes targeting Ukraine’s ports came after Moscow said on Monday that it would withdraw from an agreement that has allowed grain to be exported by ship to global markets. Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said they were “an attempt to destroy the ability to supply food to the countries of the global south”.