A Russian missile and drone attack damaged a building at the Chinese consulate in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, according to local authorities.
Beijing has not condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and while officially neutral, remains an important ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The regional governor of Odesa oblast, Oleh Kiper, posted an image online that showed minor damage to the building's windows, Reuters reported on Thursday.
"The aggressor is deliberately hitting the port infrastructure," he wrote on Telegram, showing that "the enemy does not pay attention to anything."
Photos of the mission located at Nakhimova Lane showed damage including smashed windows after the strikes which reportedly took place overnight. On Thursday morning, the Odesa police blocked traffic along the lane to carry out search and rescue operations.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
The Ukrainian news outlet Pravda reported that overnight on Wednesday at least one person was killed and two people were injured following the Russian strikes at the center of the city which caused "destruction and fire."
Pravda said that air defense forces had destroyed 18 out of 38 air attacks that Russia launched overnight. It's the third consecutive night that Russia's overnight attacks have targeted Odesa and Mykolaiv.
As previously reported by Newsweek, Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanshyna said that the blitz was "revenge" for Kyiv's suspected naval drone strike on the Kerch Strait Bridge on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that 60,000 tons of agricultural products intended for China had been destroyed in a strike at Odesa port.
The attacks prompted the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell to warn that the deliberate destruction of food stocks will lead to a large-scale food crisis in the world.
"This grain is not simply stuck in warehouses but destroyed," Borrell said ahead of a Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels. "This means that there will be a shortage of food, a shortage of grain in the world."
Ukraine's Defense Ministry said that from midnight Friday all vessels on the Black Sea heading toward Russian or Russia-occupied ports will be treated as carrying military cargo "with all associated risks."
The ministry said Russia had turned the Black Sea into a danger zone by threatening civilian vessels and trade routes and attacking civilian infrastructure in cities.
"Navigation in the areas of the northeastern part of the Black Sea and the Kerch-Yenikale Strait of Ukraine is prohibited as dangerous," the Ukrainian officials said.
Update 07/20/23,11:48 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
