Russia, Ukraine trade missile strikes on war's 150th day

The new attacks came hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals with the United Nations and Turkey that were intended to avert a global food crisis

Russia's military fired a barrage of missiles on July 23, 2022 at an airfield in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.

The attacks on key infrastructure on the 150th day of Russia's war in Ukraine marked new attempts by the warring parties to tip the scales of the grinding conflict in their favour.

In Ukraine's central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway facility. Gov Andriy Raikovych said that at least one serviceman and two guards were killed. The regional administration reported the strikes near the city of Kirovohrad, wounded another 13 people.

In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt supplies to the Russians.

The new attacks came hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals with the United Nations and Turkey that were intended to avert a global food crisis. The agreements clear the way for the shipment of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertiliser held up by the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that the agreements offer “a chance to prevent a global catastrophe — a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us”.

Despite the progress on that front, fighting raged unabated in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.