Russia insists strike on Ukrainian port of Odesa hit military targets

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russian defense ministry officials on Sunday insisted that an airstrike on the port of Odesa — less than a day after Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on resuming grain shipments from there — had hit only military targets.

"In the seaport in the city of Odesa, on the territory of a shipyard, sea-based high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the U.S. to the Kyiv regime," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a daily briefing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address Saturday evening that the attack on Odesa "destroyed the very possibility" of dialogue with Russia.