Kirby compares Odesa port strike to Russian attacks on humanitarian shipments in Syria

That’s according to the White House strategic communications coordinator John Kirby, who spoke in an interview with CNN, as reported by Ukrinform.

“Unfortunately, we've seen this out of the Russians before — you can go back, even into the war in Syria, where they were hitting humanitarian aid shipments that were meant for Syrian citizens and Syrian refugees,” the U.S. administration official noted.

The spokesman says Russia’s move “sure flies in the face of what they say is their commitment to be good-faith participants in this arrangement to get — to get grain out.”

Kirby also expressed hope that such attacks “won't happen again,” and that the Russians “will actually participate in good faith in Istanbul.”

For its part, the U.S. will be watching “very, very closely” the damage that the port infrastructure sustained and whether it could affect operations of the Odesa port grain terminals.