Incomprehension follows anger in the diplomatic world. Ukraine assured that Russian strikes hit the port of Odessa on Saturday July 23, accusing Vladimir Putin of having "spit in the face" of the UN and Turkey and of compromising the application of the agreement signed the day before on the resumption of grain exports blocked by the war. Without reacting directly, Moscow first denied its involvement in these strikes to Ankara, before asserting that it had destroyed Ukrainian "military infrastructure".
The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy said on Sunday that Russian missiles had destroyed military infrastructure the day before in the port of Odessa, a vital place for the export of Ukrainian cereals. "Kalibr missiles destroyed military infrastructure in the port of Odessa, with a high-precision strike," wrote Maria Zakharova on her Telegram account, in response to a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that these strikes had destroyed the possibility of a dialogue or an agreement with Moscow.
North Korea on Sunday accused the United States of manufacturing biological weapons in Ukraine, echoing an accusation already made by Russia and rejected by the United Nations in March. Washington has "installed numerous biological laboratories in dozens of countries and regions, including Ukraine, in defiance of international treaties", the official North Korean news agency KCNA said, referring to elements "detected". by Russia.
Pyongyang, an ally of Moscow, has also accused Washington of being "a vicious sponsor of biological terrorism throwing humanity into destruction" and of waging "bacterial warfare" during the Korean War in the 1950s. that Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow have done repeatedly in the past. Washington has denied these allegations.
The United States on Saturday condemned Russian missile strikes on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, saying they 'cast serious doubt' on Russia's commitment to unblocking grain exports as part of the agreement it signed the day before in Istanbul.
"This attack casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia's commitment to yesterday's agreement [Friday, editor's note] and undermines the work of the UN, Turkey and Ukraine to get essential food to global markets," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. For its part, the United Kingdom also condemned an "absolutely appalling" attack.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy accused Russia of systematically violating its commitments, after Russian forces bombarded the port of Odessa according to kyiv. “It only proves one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it,” Volodymyr Zelensky said during a meeting with a delegation of American elected officials, according to a press release from the presidency.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday called for negotiations between Washington and Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, again criticizing ineffective sanctions and the strategy of the European Union. The 59-year-old nationalist and ultra-conservative leader also defended his vision of an "unmixed Hungarian race", in a speech at the summer school in Baile Tusnad, in Romanian Transylvania, where a large Hungarian community resides.
“We are sitting in a car with all four tires punctured,” he said of the conflict, judging that it “would never have broken out if Donald Trump was still at the head of the United States and Angela German Chancellor Merkel". The sanctions, with a devastating economic impact, "will not change the situation" and "the Ukrainians will not emerge victorious", estimated Viktor Orban. Ditto for deliveries of military equipment: "the more the West sends powerful weapons, the longer the war drags on."
