Russia says it made ‘retaliatory strikes’ on Ukrainian ports overnight

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it continued what it called “retaliatory strikes” on Ukraine, hitting targets in the Black Sea ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv, days after Moscow quit a deal to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine.

Moscow had promised retaliation for an attack on Monday with seaborne drones that damaged the bridge linking Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014, with southern Russia.

The attack coincided with Moscow’s decision not to extend the grain deal after accusing the West of failing to honour a parallel memorandum intended to facilitate Russia’s agricultural and fertiliser exports.

Since then, Russia has directed nightly bombardments at Ukraine’s port facilities and fuel and grain stores.

On Thursday morning, the defence ministry said it had “continued to deliver retaliatory strikes with high-precision sea and air-based weapons at workshops and storage sites for unmanned boats in the regions of Odesa and Chornomorsk”.

“In the area of ​​the city of Mykolaiv, fuel infrastructure facilities and ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed,” it added.

Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, said on Thursday that 19 people were wounded in the regional capital, and several residential buildings damaged.

A three-storey residential building was left without its top floor and a line of adjacent ones was charred and gutted by fire.

In Odesa, a security guard was killed and at least eight others were wounded, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.