Russia attacks a Ukrainian port before key grain deal talks between Putin and Turkey’s president

2025-04-20 10:55:16 source: category:Markets

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two people were hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage against port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Sunday, officials said.

The attack comes a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the resumption of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that 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 defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’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.”

Other news What’s at stake when Turkey’s leader meets Putin in a bid to reestablish the Black Sea grain deal US House Foreign Affairs Committee chair calls Russia-China alliance the biggest threat since WWII Russia’s Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan set to meet amid efforts to repair Ukraine grain deal

Moscow hasn’t commented on the attack.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were killed and two others were wounded during Russian shelling 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 announced Sunday that they had 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 wounded during the attack, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

More:Markets

Recommend

Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'

LONDON - Buckingham Palace said Friday it would investigate staff working for Britain's royal family

After 'melancholic' teen years, 'Inside Out 2' star Maya Hawke embraces her anxiety

Maya Hawke was too cool for Pixar.The actress was on the verge of turning 17 in 2015 when “Inside Ou

Report finds Colorado was built on $1.7 trillion of land expropriated from tribal nations

A report published this week by a Native American-led nonprofit examines in detail the dispossession