Russia missile strike on Odesa jeopardizes agreement to lift grain blockade
Russia’s missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa Saturday cast doubt on its commitment to a U.N.-backed agreement to lift the blockade that has trapped millions of tons of grain in Ukraine and has led to a global hunger crisis.
Ukrainian officials said they still hope the deal will continue and that ships are scheduled to begin leaving next week.

Vyacheslav, a Ukrainian farmer, told ABC News Sunday that his grain harvest from last year is still being held in storage and he showed ABC News 250 tons of it sitting in a pile across from this year’s crop.
Vyacheslav said he witnessed Saturday's missile strike from his fields as he was harvesting. Part of his land contains trenches dug by Ukraine’s military in preparation for an attack.

He said the missile strike made him skeptical of Russia following through on the agreement to lift the grain embargo.
"Russia will only start to agree once we punch it in the teeth,” Vyacheslav said.
For now, he said he doesn’t know when his grain will move. Even if the deal does hold, he’s unsure that it will solve the problem for Ukraine’s farmers since price speculation, he said, is making it unprofitable for him to move it.
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell







