Russia strikes Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, a day after grain talks breakthrough

Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the frontlines on Thursday, a day after a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian grain exports underscoring how far the two sides remain from a peace settlement. 

Ukraine said the strike had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea and called the attack war crime saying it had killed at least 21 people, including 3 children. Ukraine’s state emergency service said that a search was on for 42 missing in the city after the strike. 

The Russian defence ministry, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, is yet to comment on the strike. 
Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200 km southwest of the capital Kyiv, hosts the command headquarters of the Ukrainian Air Force, a target which Russia used cruise missiles to try to hit in March, the Ukrainian air force said at the time. 

Shortly after the attack, 45 countries at the conference in The Hague - headquarters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) - signed a political declaration to work together on investigations into war crimes in Ukraine. Those countries included European Union states as well as Britain, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia. 
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responded by denying the accusations and said that attempts to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the conflict in Ukraine risk endangering humanity. 

The Kremlin has said that Russia is ready to halt what the West calls Moscow’s unprovoked war of aggression if Kyiv agrees to its conditions.
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine, 
July 14 Reuters