"A barbarian attitude:" Russian attack on Odesa causing “destruction of grain storage," EU says

Russian attacks in the Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa are causing large scale destruction of grain storage, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has warned.  

Speaking to reporters ahead of an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Borrell described the attacks as “a barbarian attitude, which will be taken into consideration by the council today.”

“Not only they withdraw from the grain agreement in order to export grain from Ukraine, but they are burning the grain,” Borrell said. 

“What we already know is that this is going to create a big, a huge food crisis in the world,” he continued.

Borrell also told reporters that he had presented a plan “to ensure the financial support for Ukraine in the next years, which will amount to quite an important amount on money,” which he said he hoped ministers will support.  Russia said Monday it was suspending its participation in a crucial deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain, which raises fears yet again over over global food supplies.

Under the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, ships were allowed by Russia to leave several Ukrainian ports in and around Odesa and travel through an agreed corridor to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait to reach global markets.

But with Odesa under attack by Russia for three consecutive days, grain exports are expected to stall