The United Nations said Monday that grain exports from Ukraine should begin again within days even as it condemned Russian shelling in the key Black Sea port city of Odesa within hours of agreeing to the resumption of the food shipments.

The grain exports will be made from Odesa and two other Black Sea ports, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said, “and we want to make sure that all conditions are right for the safe travel of ships.”

“Anything that’s not commensurate with that is, of course, not helpful for the success of this initiative,” Haq said as he reiterated Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ condemnation of Russia for launching the Saturday missile attack on Odesa.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov contended, “There’s nothing in the [grain export] commitments that Russia signed up to in Istanbul that would prohibit us from continuing our special military operation, destroying military infrastructure and other military targets.”

Russia said Monday its missile strikes on military installations on Odesa should not affect the agreement to resume grain exports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the strikes in “no way related to infrastructure that is used for the export of grain.”

Russia had initially denied any involvement in the Saturday strike but said Sunday its forces were responsible.

Ukrainian officials said they were working to get grain exports going again following the deal Ukraine and Russia signed on Friday.

The United Nations and Turkey helped broker the agreement, which calls for Russia’s fleet in the Black Sea to allow safe passage through areas that Russia has blockaded since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

The arrangement was hailed as an important step toward alleviating a global food crisis, with U.N. chief Guterres calling it “a beacon of hope, possibility and relief.”

Following Saturday’s strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Russia, saying it was jeopardizing the grain deal.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack “casts serious doubt on the credibility of Russia’s commitment to [Friday’s] deal and undermines the work of the U.N., Turkey, and Ukraine to get critical food to world markets.”

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.