LCereal exports from Ukrainian ports resumed on Thursday after Russia returned to the humanitarian corridor agreement, with the G7 pledging to prevent Moscow from “starving” and “death of cold” Ukrainians this winter.
At the same time, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it had not yet detected “any sign of undeclared nuclear activities” in three places inspected at the request of kyiv. These conclusions are “clear and irrefutable proof” of the absence of any preparation for the manufacture of a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine, accused by Moscow of manufacturing one, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also claimed that the Russian strikes had damaged 40% of Ukrainian energy installations, temporarily depriving 4.5 million of his compatriots of electricity on Thursday evening. The Russians “cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, that’s why they are trying to break our people” by indulging in “energy terror”, he insisted.
Ukraine has also “strongly” condemned the “forced mass displacements” by the Russian military of residents of the southern region of Kherson. They are also taking place in the vicinity of Zaporizhia and in Crimea, also in the south, as well as in the east (provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk) and are accompanied by “looting by the occupiers”, denounced the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs foreign.
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290,102 tons of food passed through on Thursday
At midday, “seven cargo ships carrying a total of 290,102 tons of grain and agricultural products” were transiting through the humanitarian corridor “under the Ukrainian Grain Initiative in the Black Sea”, the delegation of the Ukraine confirmed. at the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, responsible for supervising its application.
Ukrainian food exports reached ten million tonnes on Thursday thanks to this international agreement, welcomed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, calling for the renewal of this Initiative which “reduces the risk of hunger” in the world.
Russia resumed on Wednesday its participation in this agreement, signed in July under the aegis of the United Nations and Turkey, on the export of cereals and other agricultural products, considering that it had received guarantees from kyiv on the demilitarization of the corridor. humanitarian action in the Black Sea.
According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, 426 boats have already followed this secure route since August 1. The United States, like the UN, welcomed the outcome, but stressed that the grain deal must now be extended beyond the scheduled November 19 deadline.
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“Before deciding to continue, it will be necessary to carry out an assessment”, however warned the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov. A senior United Nations official involved in the negotiations, Rebeca Grynspan, meanwhile said she “hopes” that the agreement will be extended.
Especially since the negotiations on another thorny subject, the unblocking of Russian fertilizer exports, have made, according to her, “important steps forward”, even if “there is still a long way to go”. A step forward on this plan could no doubt make things easier.
Moscow had suspended its participation in the grain agreement on Saturday after an attack carried out with marine drones against its fleet based in the harbor of Sevastopol, in annexed Crimea. The Russian army has accused Ukraine of having carried out this operation, in which at least one Russian military building was hit, with the help of “British experts” and using the maritime corridor reserved for grain exports.
Russia also summoned the British ambassador to Moscow on Thursday to tell her that “such hostile actions by the United Kingdom risk leading to an escalation of the situation which could have unforeseeable and dangerous consequences”, while London denies any involvement.
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heaters, tents
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, for his part, described as “unacceptable” the supply of drones and the possible supply of ballistic missiles by Iran to Russia for its war against Ukraine. Ukrainians and Westerners accuse Tehran of already delivering combat drones to Moscow, which these two capitals deny.
The G7 countries, meeting in Münster, Germany, meanwhile denounced Russia’s “treacherous methods” in its way of waging war by trying to “starve, thirst or freeze people by attacking civil infrastructure.
Faced with the intensification of Russian strikes on civilian equipment, the seven industrialized countries of this group will coordinate their aid to deliver “water pumps, heaters, living and sanitary containers, beds, blankets, tents”, a announced German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.