Russian and Ukrainian officials are due to inspect the first shipment of grain exported by Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion near Istanbul on Wednesday. This in application of the agreement signed between kyiv and Moscow in order to stem the food crisis.
The Razoni, a freighter flying the flag of Sierra Leone, came into sight of the northern shores of Istanbul on the Black Sea on Tuesday following leaving the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Monday with 26,000 tonnes of maize bound for from Tripoli to Lebanon.
The ship will be inspected on Wednesday morning by a joint team of Russian and Ukrainian officials at the entrance to the Bosphorus, in accordance with Russia’s wish to ascertain the nature of the cargo, the Turkish Ministry of Defense said. Cereals have already left Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive, but from Berdiansk (southeast), on the Sea of Azov, an area occupied by the Russians.
“Our goal now is regularity. (…) Continuity, regularity is a necessary principle for the consumers of our agricultural production”, declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address on Tuesday evening, castigating the “State “Russian” terrorist who “caused the food crisis in order to use cereals, corn and oil as weapons”.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “warmly” welcomed Razoni’s departure, expressing the hope that the resumption of Ukrainian exports, enabled by an international agreement, “will bring much-needed stability and security assistance. world food”.
16 ships on hold
During a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, French President Emmanuel Macron assured him on Monday of the continuation of “European efforts” to help Ukraine export its cereals. According to the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, 16 other boats loaded with grain are “waiting their turn” to leave Odessa, the main Ukrainian port, located on the Black Sea, which before the war concentrated 60% of the country’s port activity. .
The agreement signed on July 22 by Russia and Ukraine, through the mediation of Turkey and under the aegis of the United Nations, allows the resumption of shipments to world markets of Ukrainian cereals blocked since the Russian invasion, under international supervision.
The document provides in particular for the establishment of secure corridors to allow the circulation in the Black Sea of merchant ships and the export of 20 to 25 million tonnes of cereals. “Let’s hope that the agreements will be implemented by all parties and that the mechanisms will work effectively,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
A similar agreement signed simultaneously guarantees Russia the export of its agricultural products and fertilizers, despite Western sanctions. Both agreements are expected to help ease the global food crisis caused by soaring food prices in some of the poorest countries.
Russian missile strike
On a military level, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces had fired eight cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea into the territory of Ukraine, one of which “hit a complex of anti-aircraft defense in the Lviv region”, in the west. The other seven missiles were intercepted, according to this source.
“There is no information on possible casualties at this time,” regional governor Maksym Kozytsky wrote on Twitter. In Mykolaiv, a town near the front in southern Ukraine, “powerful explosions” were heard around 5 a.m. Wednesday, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said on Telegram.
In the neighboring region of Kherson, the first major city to fall into the hands of the Russian army, on March 3, “the situation remains tense”, she noted. But Ukraine, which is currently leading a counter-offensive in the south, announced on Tuesday that it had taken over 53 localities there.
In the same region, the head of the military administration of Kryviy Rih, Oleksander Vilkul, reported the death of two civilians who were in a minibus trying to leave the village of Starosillya, in the hands of the Russians. Five other people were evacuated, two of whom were seriously injured and hospitalized.
“It’s hell out there”
Artillery is decisive in the conflict in Ukraine. Particularly greedy in projectiles of all kinds, the Ukrainian and Russian armies engage in a war of attrition at the level of ammunition.
The United States, the main support of Ukraine, announced on Monday the shipment of new weapons to kyiv for 550 million dollars, thus bringing its military assistance to more than eight billion. This aid will include ammunition for the Himars rocket launchers and 75,000 155mm shells. Mr Zelensky thanked the US President on Tuesday evening, explaining that “the word ‘Himars’ has almost become a synonym for the word ‘justice’ for our country”.
“Yes, it’s true, we cannot completely beat the Russian army in terms of artillery and manpower. And we feel it in the fighting, especially in the Donbass (east), in Pisky, Avdiivka and somewhere else. It’s hell out there. There are no words to describe what’s going on there,” he added.
For its part, the Russian Supreme Court on Tuesday classified the Ukrainian regiment Azov, famous for having defended Mariupol, in the south-east of Ukraine, as a “terrorist organization”, which might lead to very heavy prosecution for its captured fighters.
“Any decision of the Russian courts regarding the war in Ukraine (…) is not legitimate from the point of view of international law” and “Russia will bear direct legal responsibility for the ill-treatment inflicted on prisoners of war”, a par the following reacted an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podoliak.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
