Hours after Russia declined to renew a pact permitting the safe shipment of grain from the area, Ukraine activated aerial defenses near coastal Odesa early on Tuesday, according to authorities.
“Odesa. Air defence combat work continues,” said Sergiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa military region, on Telegram.
The southern Ukrainian area of Odesa is home to maritime terminals that were essential to the now-expired Moscow-Kyiv grain export agreement.
Russia was “attacking the south of Ukraine with attack drones,” head of the Odesa region’s military administration, Oleg Kiper, said on Telegram.
He warned residents to stay in shelters.
Ukraine’s southern operations command said Russia was “attacking the southern regions with unmanned attack vehicles.”
Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Kirovograd, and Cherkasy all received air alerts as well.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, warships obstructed its Black Sea ports until the agreement, reached in July 2022, permitted the transit of crucial food deliveries.
Due to Russia’s refusal to grant a delay, the agreement that allowed the export of Russian food and fertilizers came to an end at midnight in Istanbul (2100 GMT).
