Prior to crucial grain-deal negotiations between Putin and the president of Turkey, Russia strikes a Ukrainian port

According to authorities, two persons were taken to the hospital after a 32-hour Russian drone onslaught targeting port infrastructure in the Odesa area of Ukraine on Sunday.

The assault occurs the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to meet to negotiate the restart of food supplies from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain arrangement that Moscow withdrew from in July.

In the early hours of Sunday, Russian troops launched 25 Shahed drones built in Iran along the Danube River, 22 of which were shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram.

Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that Russia was behind the attack in an effort “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.”

Moscow has not responded to the assault.

Russian bombardment on the town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region on Sunday resulted in two fatalities and two injuries elsewhere in Ukraine.

According to a Telegram message from Ukraine’s National Police, artillery fire struck eight communities in the area.

A war crimes inquiry into the murder of a police officer who was killed by Russian shelling on the town of Seredyna-Buda Saturday afternoon was also launched, according to Ukrainian prosecutors, who made this announcement on Sunday.

During the incident, which occurred in the northeastern Sumy area of Ukraine, two more police officers and one civilian sustained injuries.