Ukraine yesterday pressed ahead with efforts to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at easing global food shortages but warned deliveries would suffer if Russia’s strike on Odessa was a sign of more to come.

Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s port of Odessa yesterday, in what Kyiv called a “spit in the face” of a day-old deal between the warring sides to resume cereal exports blocked by the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a ceasefire with Russia without reclaiming lost territories would only prolong the war, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Russia and Ukraine yesterday signed a landmark deal to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.

Russia will not supply oil to countries that decide to impose a price cap on its oil, Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina told a briefing on Friday.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain — as well as Russian grain and fertilizer — ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe.

Russia and Ukraine will sign a deal on Friday to reopen Ukraine's Black Sea ports for grain exports, Turkey said, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by Russia's invasion can be eased.

Russian artillery strikes pounded Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv yesterday after Moscow announced it was expanding its war aims, even as Russian gas flows to Europe resumed through the Nord Stream pipeline.

Russia has already slashed Europe’s amounts of natural gas used to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes in the winter, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned they could keep dwindling.

Russia’s military aims in Ukraine are no longer focused “only” on the country’s east, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, adding that supplies of Western weapons had changed the Kremlin’s calculus.

A senior Russian security official said yesterday that peace in Ukraine when it came would be on Moscow’s terms as Russian forces struck targets across the country with missiles even as their ground offensive stuttered.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered generals to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons after Western-supplied weapons were used to strike Russian supply lines.

Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”.

Russia has ordered its forces in Ukraine to step up operations, its defence ministry said yesterday, as rockets and missiles pounded the country in the latest of a series of bombardments that Kyiv says have killed dozens of people in recent days.

Western finance chiefs condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine at G20 talks in Indonesia Friday, accusing Russia of sending a “shockwave” through the world economy and its technocrats of complicity in the war’s alleged atrocities.

Russian missiles struck Vinnytsia in central Ukraine yesterday, killing at least 20 people including three children, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called “an open act of terrorism”.

Russian missiles that struck a city in central Ukraine killed at least 22 people and wounded about more than 100 Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine’s president alleged the attack deliberately targeted civilians in locations without military value.

Ukraine, the United Nations and Turkey hailed progress at talks in Istanbul that aim to resume Black Sea grain exports blocked by Russia and ease the risk of starvation faced by millions, but an end to the war remained far off as heavy shelling continued.

Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish military delegations met with UN officials in Istanbul yesterday for talks on resuming exports of Ukrainian grain from the major Black Sea port of Odesa as a global food crisis worsens.

The European Union will encourage member countries to cut gas demand by incentivising industries to use less, as it prepares for possible further cuts to Russian supply, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters.