Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Odesa port region kills six, governor says By Reuters

(Reuters) – A Russian ballistic missile attack on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region on Wednesday killed six people and wounded eight, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

The injured were all Ukrainian citizens, Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Four were in serious condition.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said a Panamanian-flagged container ship, the Shui Spirit, was damaged in the attack.

“An insidious enemy is trying to disrupt the activity of the Ukrainian grain corridor, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure,” Kiper wrote in his post.

The attack on Chornomorsk port was the third in the region in the past four days.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile hit a Palau-flagged ship in the port of Odesa on Monday, killing one Ukrainian citizen and injuring five foreigners.

And on Sunday, a Russian missile damaged a Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged civilian ship loaded with corn in the port of Pivdennyi.

Under an agreement negotiated by Turkey shortly after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ships carrying goods from Ukrainian ports operated without impediment for about a year before Russia withdrew from the agreement.

Since then, the ships have used an alternative route, hugging the southwestern Black Sea coast of Ukraine through Romanian waters and on to Turkey.