What a surprise. Just over 12
hours after Russia signed a UN-authorized deal with Ukraine to lift the
blockade on much-needed grain exports, in which both sides agreed not to “carry
out attacks on port facilities involved in this initiative,” four of the Moscow
Kalibr cruise missiles were launched at Odessa.
Two penetrated the air
defenses of Ukraine’s main southern port and slammed into the port.
US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken said the attack was evidence of the Kremlin’s “contempt for the safety
and security of millions of citizens”. Our own Foreign Minister, Liz Truss,
said ‘it shows that no word the Russian president says can be trusted’.
Both statements are correct,
but they add nothing to what we already knew. Russia may be a member of the UN
Security Council, but it is also a bandit nation – and you should never
negotiate with bandits, or not expect them to honor an agreement.
We could go further and say
that Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin has become a terrorist
state.
Eyewitness video shows the
moment when the Russian cruise missile hit the grain processing plant on the
shores of the Black Sea. Kiev said no grain was lost in the attack
