Russia attacks Ukrainian port before grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey

Two people have been admitted to hospital after a Russian drone barrage against port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials have said.

The attack comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement Moscow broke off from in July.

Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones along the Danube River in the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which were shot down by air defences, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as part of a Russian drive “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world”.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that the attack was aimed at fuel storage facilities used to supply military equipment.

Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan’s long-awaited meeting is due to take place in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday.

Turkish officials have confirmed the pair will discuss renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks ago.

The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — allowed nearly 33 million metric tonnes of grain and other commodities to leave three Ukrainian ports safely despite Russia’s war.

However, Russia broke away from the agreement after claiming a parallel deal promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertiliser had not been honoured.

Moscow complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance hampered its agricultural trade, even though it has shipped record amounts of wheat since last year.

Mr Erdogan has indicated sympathy with Mr Putin’s position.

In July, he said Mr Putin had “certain expectations from western countries” over the Black Sea deal and that it was “crucial for these countries to take action in this regard”.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were killed and two others hurt during Russian shelling on Sunday on the village of Vuhledar in the Donetsk area.

Artillery fire hit eight settlements across the region, Ukraine’s National Police wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian prosecutors also said on Sunday that they have opened a war crimes investigation into the death of a police officer killed by Russian shelling on the town of Seredyna-Buda on Saturday afternoon.

Two other police officers and one civilian were hurt during the attack, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.