The United Kingdom on Saturday condemned the “extremely terrible” attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa, a day after the agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine to scrap an export ban on tons of grain trapped in Black Sea ports.
“It is absolutely appalling that, just one day after this deal,” British Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister candidate Liz Truss said, “Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a completely unprovoked attack on Odessa.”
During a campaign to succeed Boris Johnson, Liz Truss said it “shows you can’t trust a word.” [Putin] She says.”
“We urgently need to work with our international partners to find another way to get the grain out of Ukraine without involving Russia and its broken promises.”
UK Conservative Party members are due to vote on September 5 to decide whether Liz Truss or former finance minister Rishi Sunak will be the country’s next prime minister.
Ukrainian authorities have reported a Russian attack on the commercial port of Odessa, a major grain export point across the Black Sea, 24 hours after the agreement signed between Russia and Ukraine to allow the export of this product.
Referring to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Russia “always finds a way to keep its promises.”
The Ukrainian government accused Russia of “spitting in the face” of the United Nations and Turkey for the attack, and in a statement carried by the official Ukrinfrom website in Kyiv, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Russia should take responsibility. Responsibility “if the agreement reached on Friday in Istanbul between Kyiv and Moscow is broken.
However, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that Russia today denied any involvement in the attacks on the Ukrainian port of Odessa.
“The Russians told us that they have absolutely nothing to do with this attack and that they are looking into the matter,” the Turkish minister said, while Moscow did not officially respond.
