(Reuters) – Russian forces repeatedly fired on an ammonia pipeline in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, a local governor said on Tuesday, a potentially crucial pipeline for the extension of a deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertilizer from ports of the Black Sea.
The extension next month of the Black Sea Grain initiative, a deal reached in July 2022 to help tackle a global food crisis, could hinge on the pipeline reopening.
The world’s longest ammonia pipeline stretches some 2,470 kilometers (1,534 miles) from Togliatti in Russia on the Volga River to three Black Sea ports. It has been closed since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
There were no recorded leaks from Tuesday night’s shelling that hit the pipeline near the village of Masiutivka and an overnight shelling near the village of Zapadne, said Oleh Sinehubov, governor of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.
“There is no threat to people’s lives and health,” Sinehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.
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Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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