Russian authorities asserted on Sunday that their missile strikes this weekend on the Ukrainian port of Odesa, which occurred only hours after both nations signed agreements with the UN allowing the resumption of grain exports, struck solely military targets.
A worldwide food catastrophe has been caused by the port’s blockade. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Saturday’s strike was a “spit in the face” to Turkey and the UN, who mediated the accords.
The Russian military launched four cruise missiles towards the port, two of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian military on Saturday.
No grain storage facilities were destroyed in Odesa, according to command spokesperson Nataliya Humenyuk, but two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port’s infrastructure and two more were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
On “Face The Nation” on Sunday, Oksana Markarova, the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, alleged that Russian soldiers are “forcefully deporting” persons, families, and children while accelerating the adoption process to place them in Russian homes.
“Russians themselves have previously acknowledged that 350,000 children have been stolen, not evacuated, as they claim, “added Markarova. “This is a heinous breach of morality as well as international law. How dare you kidnap our kids and try to smuggle them into Russia?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed earlier this month that Russia had taken between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian nationals, including 260,000 children, and forcefully deported them to Russia.