A step on his long road. A team of experts began inspecting, Wednesday, August 3, off Istanbul the first shipment of grain exported by Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. 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. It left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Monday the day before with 26,000 tons of corn bound for Tripoli in Lebanon. On Wednesday morning, shortly before 8 a.m. GMT (10 a.m. French time), around twenty Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian experts and United Nations delegates arrived on the ship aboard two shuttles. Follow our live.
Germany accuses Russia of blocking the delivery of a turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has accused Russia of being responsible for blocking the delivery of a turbine currently in Germany, without which the Nord Stream gas pipeline cannot, according to Moscow, function normally. “There is no reason that would prevent the delivery from taking place”, did he declare. Moscow should just “provide the necessary customs information for its transport to Russia”he added.
The French Parliament ratifies the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. The deputies adopted the text by 209 votes against 46 with the support of LR (right), the Socialist Party (PS) and the ecologists, the abstention of the RN and the vote against LFI. Sweden and Finland, however, need a ratification of the thirty member states of the organization to benefit from the protection of Article 5 of the NATO Charter in the event of an attack.
“Volatile” situation at the Zaporijjia plant, according to the head of the IAEA. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (south) has been under Russian control since the beginning of March, and the situation there is “really volatile”according to the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “All safety principles have been violated in one way or another. And we cannot allow this to continue”he estimated.