Russia hits grain terminals in Ukraine

MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters): Russian missiles hit grain terminals at an agricultural enterprise in the Odesa region in a fourth successive night of air strikes on southern Ukraine, the regional governor said on Friday.
But Russia's attacks appeared less intense than on the three previous nights, when missiles and drones struck southern cities and ports after Moscow quit a UN-brokered deal allowing safe shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.
Odesa's regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said two people had been hurt in the attack on an agricultural enterprise but did not say where in the region the enterprise was located.
"Unfortunately, the grain terminals of an agricultural enterprise in Odesa region were hit. The enemy destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley," he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kiper said Russia had attacked with Kalibr cruise missiles that were fired from the Black Sea at low altitude to bypass air defence systems.
He said two missiles hit the grain storage facilities, causing a fire. Another missile struck the same enterprise as the blaze was being extinguished, damaging agricultural and rescue equipment.
Photographs from the scene showed a fire burning among crumpled metal buildings that appeared to be storehouses, and a badly damaged fire-fighting vehicle.
Moscow says it has been carrying out "retaliatory strikes" this week after quitting the Black Sea grain export deal and accusing Ukraine of being behind blasts on Monday on a bridge that is used to transport Russian military supplies.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022 and still holds swathes of Ukrainian territory, has also continued shelling in eastern and southern areas this week.
Yuriy Malashko, the governor of the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, reported 80 Russian attacks on settlements in the region in the previous 24 hours, and said that four people had been killed.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused NATO member Poland of having territorial ambitions in the former Soviet Union, and said any aggression against Russia's neighbour and close ally Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia.
Moscow would react to any aggression against Belarus, which forms a loose "Union State" with Russia, "with all the means at our disposal", Putin told a meeting of his Security Council in televised remarks.
Warsaw's Security Committee decided on Wednesday to move military units to eastern Poland after members of the Russian Wagner mercenary force arrived in Belarus, the state-run news agency PAP quoted its secretary as saying on Friday.
On Wednesday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part for now in the war in Ukraine but ordering them to gather strength for Africa while they trained the Belarusian army.