Ukraine’s three designated ports for grain exports resumed operation on Wednesday, as kyiv’s army partially destroyed a strategically important bridge in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson and kyiv’s army tries to resume.
Ukrainian government expects first shipments to leave Black Sea ports ‘as early as this week’ worldwide.
Again in application of the agreements signed for four months on July 22 in Istanbul, the Joint Coordination Center (CCC) in charge of controlling the transport via the Black Sea of Ukrainian grain was officially inaugurated the same day in this Turkish metropolis.
Another consequence of the Russian offensive, the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany is now only in service, as planned, at around a fifth of its capacity, reinforcing the risks of shortages this winter. in Europe.
Resumption of work in ports
“The ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (Pivdenny, editor’s note) have resumed work,” the Ukrainian navy announced on Wednesday.
“The exit and entry of ships to seaports will be done by forming a convoy that will accompany the lead ship,” she continued.
kyiv and Moscow agreed in Istanbul, via mediation by Turkey and under the aegis of the UN, to allow the delivery abroad of some 25 million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports.
However, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they do not trust Moscow to ensure the security of convoys and recall the Russian missile fire on Saturday at the port of Odessa.
The Kremlin for its part declared that it did not see any obstacles to the resumption of exports, also hampered by the presence of sea mines laid by Ukrainian forces to guard against a Russian amphibious assault.
Demining will only take place “in the corridor necessary for exports,” the government stressed in kyiv.
A strategic bridge targeted by the Ukrainians
Located in the suburbs of Kherson, the Antonovski bridge, key for supplies because it is the only one to connect this city to the south bank of the Dnieper, was partially disabled on Wednesday by a Ukrainian attack.
“Those who fired on the bridge just made life a little more difficult for the population,” nevertheless relativized Kirill Stremoussov, a senior representative of the Russian occupation authorities.
“It will have no influence on the outcome of the fighting,” he added, without specifying the extent of the damage.
“Occupiers must learn to swim to cross the Dnieper. Or leave Kherson while they can,” tweeted Mikhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency.
This city is located just a few kilometers from the southern front where the Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in order to reconquer these territories lost in the very first days of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Essential for Ukrainian agriculture, the region is also strategic because it borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
In eastern Ukraine, the Donbass has also been the scene of intense fighting.
AFP journalists in Bakhmout, one of the last major towns in this mining area to remain under Ukrainian control, heard sporadic artillery fire and saw a house hit by a Russian shell.
“I was in the barn and was about to go out. I heard a hiss. And I don’t remember anything. It exploded and I was thrown into the barn” by the blast, Roman, 51, told AFP.
Less Russian gas delivered to Europe
In the context of the energy standoff between Moscow and the West since the start of the conflict, the arrival of gas from Russia in Germany had been since 9 a.m. (3 a.m. in Quebec) Wednesday of some 14.4 gigawatt hours (GWh) , against nearly 29 GWh on average in recent days, lamented the German operator Gascade, which manages the network on German territory.
The supply to Germany – particularly dependent on Russian gas – but also to other European countries via this pipe installed at the bottom of the Baltic Sea had already been reduced to 40% of normal in mid-June, before a complete shutdown for an annual maintenance between July 11 and 21.
The Italian group ENI has at the same time announced that it has been informed by the Russian giant Gazprom that deliveries would be limited to 27 million m3 on Wednesday, against 34 million “in recent days”.
On Monday, Gazprom said it would further halve its daily deliveries via Nord Stream, citing a maintenance operation on a turbine.
A Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that the reduction in speed was due to Western sanctions against Russia.
But Europeans accuse Moscow of using gas as an economic and political weapon.
In an attempt to avoid shortages this winter, the 27 EU states agreed on a plan on Tuesday requiring each of them to do “everything possible” to reduce, between August 2022 and March 2023, their consumption of gas by at least 15% compared to the average of the last five years over the same period.