(Reuters) – A Russian ballistic missile attack on Wednesday on the port infrastructure of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region killed six people and injured eight, Odesa Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.
The injured were all Ukrainian nationals, 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, sustained damage in the attack.
“An insidious enemy is trying to disrupt the work of the Ukrainian grain corridor, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure,” Kiper wrote in his post.
The attack on the port of Chornomorsk was the third in the region in the past four days.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile hit a Palau-flagged vessel in Odesa port on Monday, killing one Ukrainian national and injuring five foreign nationals.
And on Sunday, a Russian missile damaged a civilian Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged vessel loaded with corn in the port of Pivdennyi.
Under a deal brokered by Turkey soon after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, ships carrying cargoes from Ukrainian ports operated without impediment for about a year before Russia pulled out of the agreement.
Vessels have since been using an alternative route, hugging Ukraine’s southwestern Black Sea coast through Romanian waters and on to Turkey.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Leslie Adler and Jonathan Oatis)
