Kyiv proposes a truce with Moscow on Black Sea strikes

Ukraine has sent Russia a proposal for a truce in reciprocal attacks on civilian targets in the Black Sea. The initiative, reported by Reuters, aims to preserve the routes used for both countries' grain exports. The proposal was reportedly communicated through an unnamed intermediary and Kyiv has yet to receive a reply.

The context explains the move. In recent weeks Moscow and Kyiv have concentrated their bombardments on each other's logistics hubs, seeking to damage the other's exports in the middle of the harvest season.

The war on ports

On Wednesday night the Russian army launched drones against the ports of Reni and Izmail, on the left bank of the Danube. According to the Russian defence ministry, the facilities were being used to store military materiel and as a temporary deployment point for Ukrainian forces. Citing the same reasons, Moscow then struck the port of Odessa and that of Ochakiv, in the Mykolaiv region.

For the Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat, Russia is in fact targeting port infrastructure and logistics systems in order to put pressure on the country's economy. Located near the Romanian border, these ports form the hub for exporting grain and raw materials from the Odessa region.

The offensive against Ukrainian ports came a day after Ukraine struck the Russian port of Novorossiysk, an important node for exporting raw materials through the Black Sea, and after the Russian foreign ministry accused Kyiv of causing a global food crisis with attacks on cargo ships carrying Russian goods.

Volodymyr Zelensky argues instead that the Russians are targeting the lives of ordinary people to spread terror, recalling the drone that struck a train carrying 340 passengers in the Odessa region, killing the driver and his assistant. In an interview with CNN the Ukrainian president again called for support for air defence, including against ballistic missiles.

Russia is counting losses of its own. In Sevastopol, in Crimea, a Russian serviceman was killed in a bombing that the Federal Security Service says was carried out by a Russian citizen on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence. Also in Sevastopol, four bomb disposal specialists and a security guard died while clearing a site that had been struck, when an unexploded device detonated.

The damage extends as far as 1,500 kilometres from the border. In the republic of Bashkortostan, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse belonging to the online retailer Wildberries at Chishmy. According to Ukrainian media citing the Telegram channel Astra, the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery, 130 kilometres south of Ufa, was also bombed; its capacity is around 7 million tonnes of oil, equal to 2.7 per cent of the national total.