Moscow claims attacks were retaliatory
Russia’s defence ministry says all targets were hit in overnight air attacks on Ukraine’s Odesa and Mykolaiv ports, describing them as a “mass revenge strike” to avenge an assault on the Crimea bridge.
Ukrainian officials say its forces downed 32 drones and six missiles during the wave of attacks.Situation in the east ‘difficult but under control’: Ukraine
The commander of Ukrainian ground forces says the situation in the country’s east is “difficult but under control”.
“The enemy is transferring reserves to the Bakhmut direction, trying to stop our advance,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram.
“At the same time, the enemy concentrated its main forces in the Kupyansk direction, where Ukrainian soldiers are holding the defence,” he added.Without Russian security guarantee, shipping grain is risky: Kremlin
Following suggestions that Turkey could protect Ukrainian grain ships, the Kremlin has said shipping grain without security guarantees from Russia would be risky as Ukraine uses waters for military activities.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a briefing that Moscow rejected the US criticism of its withdrawal from the deal and that Russia would continue supplying grain to needy countries.Russia says it hits Ukrainian targets overnight in ‘mass revenge strike’
Russia’s defence ministry says it carried out overnight attacks on two Ukrainian port cities in what it called “a mass revenge strike”, a day after an attack on the Crimean Bridge, which it blamed on Kyiv.
The ministry said in a statement it struck Odesa and Mykolayiv and hit all targets.Ukraine says it downed 32 drones and 6 missiles
Ukraine’s air force has said it downed 31 out of 36 Shahed kamikaze drones, all six Kalibr cruise missiles and one reconnaissance drone launched by Russia overnight.
“Six Calibers, 31 Shahed-136/131 attack drone and one reconnaissance BPLA were destroyed,” it said in a statement.
“Caliber winged missiles and the vast majority of kamikaze drones were destroyed in the south – in Odessa and Mykolaiv regions. The rest of the impact BPLA was affected in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” it added.Zelenskyy discusses restoring Black Sea supply routes with UN chief
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he spoke to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about restoring food supply via the Black Sea routes a day after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal.
“This is another Russian attempt to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market. The terrorist state has endangered the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports,” he said in a tweet.
“The most critical situation is in such countries of Africa and Asia as Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen. The Black Sea Grain Initiative must be preserved,” he added.
Road traffic partially restored on Crimean Bridge
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin says road traffic has partially resumed on the Crimean Bridge, which came under attack on Monday.
“Motor transport on the Crimean Bridge has been restored in reverse mode on the most outer right lane,” Khusnullin said on his Telegram channel.
However, ferry operations were suspended early on Tuesday, due to bad weather, Russian agencies reported, citing the Moscow-backed emergency situations ministry of Crimea.
