KYIV—Russia attacked Ukrainian ports on Tuesday, a day after withdrawing from a U.N.-backed pact to allow Kyiv to export grain, and Moscow claimed ground gains in a region where Ukrainian officials believed Russian soldiers were resuming the onslaught.
Russia said it struck a petroleum storage facility in Odesa as part of "mass revenge strikes" in retribution for Ukrainian airstrikes that knocked off its road bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.
Moscow withdrew from a year-old U.N.-brokered grain export pact shortly after the bridge was damaged on Monday.
According to Ukraine's southern operational military command, falling debris and explosion waves destroyed multiple residences and unidentified port equipment in Odesa, one of the country's largest ports. A significant fire was reported by local officials in Mykolaiv, another port.
Ukraine's air force said six Kalibr missiles were shot down, as were 31 of 36 drones. Moscow, for its part, stated it had intercepted a Ukrainian drone strike on Crimea, with no substantial damage on the ground, and that a single lane of traffic on the Crimea bridge had been reopened.
Six weeks after Ukraine started a counteroffensive in the east and south, Russia launched its own ground offensive in the northeast.
Russia's defense ministry reported that its soldiers had advanced 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) near Kupiansk, a frontline railway hub seized by Ukraine in an operation last year. Kyiv acknowledged the region's "complicated" situation. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the incident.
Ukraine has regained several towns in the south and the area surrounding the destroyed city of Bakhmut in the east since launching its counteroffensive last month but has yet to try a significant breakthrough beyond tightly fortified Russian lines.
The Black Sea grain export agreement negotiated a year ago by Turkey and the United Nations was one of the war's few diplomatic achievements, removing a de facto Russian blockade on Ukrainian ports and averting a worldwide food crisis.
Ukraine and Russia are two of the world's largest exporters of grains and other food products. If Ukrainian grain is again barred from the market, global prices might skyrocket.
Moscow refused to allow shipping to restart without Russian participation, explicitly stating that ships entering the area without its guarantees would be in danger.
“We’re talking about an area that’s close to a war zone,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “Without the appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise there. So if something is formalized without Russia, these risks should be taken into account.”
Russia says it may return to the grain deal if its requests for standards to be relaxed for its own food and fertilizer exports are granted.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged for the grain agreement to go forward without Russia, effectively seeking Turkey's support to circumvent Russia's blockade. The deal's supporter, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, believes Moscow can be convinced to return.
Any attempt to resume Ukrainian grain shipments in the absence of Russia would be contingent on insurance firms agreeing to provide coverage.
According to Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's eastern grouping of forces, the Russian military has assembled over 100,000 troops and over 900 tanks in the area.
Ukraine's counteroffensive has gained just minor ground around Bakhmut and along two important roads in the south.
Kyiv maintains it is moving cautiously to prevent heavy losses on hardened defensive lines riddled with landmines, and that it is now concentrating on undermining Russia's supplies and leadership. According to Moscow, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed.
