(Kyiv) Russia and Ukraine made progress on Wednesday during a meeting of military experts in Istanbul on the thorny issue of blocking grain exports from Ukrainian ports, with Turkey announcing further talks on the subject next week.
Updated yesterday at 4:39 p.m.
What you need to know
- Delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey attempted Wednesday in Istanbul to remove obstacles to exports of Ukrainian cereals via the Black Sea;
- Russian strike near Mykolaiv kills at least five;
- Death toll from Russian strike on apartment building in Chassiv Iar, eastern Ukraine, rises to 46;
- Russia carried out ground assaults on Tuesday north of Sloviansk, a key city in this mining region that has become a priority future objective for Moscow;
- Brazil plans to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine and sanctions on Moscow;
- Sievierodonetsk ravaged and repainted in Russian colours;
- More than six million Ukrainians are internally displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration;
- Some 5.5 million Ukrainians registered as refugees in other European states.
“Really substantial progress” has been made, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told media after the end of Russian-Ukrainian talks in Turkey, who said he hoped a “formal agreement” could be soon concluded.
“Today in Istanbul we saw a momentous step, a step forward to ensure the safe and secure export of Ukrainian food products across the Black Sea,” he continued: “We have a glimmer of hope to alleviate human suffering and alleviate world hunger”.
Cautious optimism also from the side of Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar who stressed that Russian and Ukrainian military experts had agreed on “joint controls” in the ports and on the means to “guarantee the security of the transfer routes”. , in other words secure corridors for the maritime transport of agricultural products.
“It has been agreed that the delegations of Russia and Ukraine will meet again in Turkey next week”, he noted, judging that a final agreement on the cereals currently immobilized in the Ukrainian ports of the fact of the Russian invasion launched on February 24 could then intervene.
“The Ukrainian delegation has informed me that progress has been made. We will agree on the details with the Secretary General of the United Nations in the coming days,” President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted in the evening.
“We are on the verge of an agreement”, had previously estimated the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba.
Billions for Ukraine
The United States announced on Tuesday that it would provide an additional $1.7 billion in aid to Ukraine.
This must bring to four billion the total amount of sums paid by the Americans to the Ukrainians since the outbreak of the war.
This new contribution is part of the $7.5 billion pledged to Kyiv by US President Joe Biden in May.
In Brussels, the finance ministers of the Member States of the European Union gave the green light to the disbursement of one billion euros to Ukraine, bringing the total to 2.2 billion euros. the financial assistance of the Twenty-Seven to this country since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24.
European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders for his part pointed out that around 13.8 billion euros in assets of oligarchs and entities had been frozen in the EU as part of the sanctions against Russia.
Kyiv denounces rumors of arms trafficking
Kyiv on Wednesday denounced “Russian propaganda” in response to “rumors” of arms trafficking from Ukraine, assuring that the weapons supplied by the West were all “carefully counted and sent to the front”.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, described arms deliveries by Washington and European states as “a matter of survival” for his country and the “surveillance” of these weapons as a “priority”.
“All weapons received by Ukraine, including long-range weapons, are carefully accounted for and sent to the front,” he said on Twitter.
“All the other rumors are banal Russian propaganda aimed at disrupting deliveries,” he concluded.
Fighting in the Kherson region
On the southern front, Ukraine said it struck Russian troops in Nova Kakhovka overnight Monday-Tuesday, killing 52 soldiers and destroying an ammunition depot.
Videos on social media showed a smoke mushroom tens of meters high.
The occupation authorities put in place by the Russians, who accused the Ukrainian army of having hit houses and killed at least seven people, denounced it as an “act of terrorism”.
Bordering the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, this area is largely in the hands of the Russian military.
The Ukrainians have been leading a counter-offensive there for several weeks while the bulk of the Russian units are deployed in the mining region of Donbass, in the east.
“Massive” missile strikes
In the southern part of Ukraine, the Russians carried out “massive” missile strikes on Mykolaiv early on Tuesday, hitting two medical establishments and apartment buildings, according to the mayor of this city Oleksandre Senkevych.
He also spoke on Tuesday evening of the “complete destruction” of a school, announcing an overall toll of 12 injured.
At least 19 Smerch and Tornado missiles were fired, said regional governor Vitaly Kim, who said 12 were injured.
“Russian terror has long since crossed the line beyond which it has become apparent to many in the civilized world that punishing Russia, a terrorist state, for all it has done in Ukraine is a matter of global security. commented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The war continues. Not a day goes by without Russian bombardment,” insisted the Ukrainian president in his address on Tuesday evening.
The Russian army, for its part, said it destroyed a Harpoon system with an Iskander missile in Berezan, in the Odessa region (south), as well as military units and ammunition depots in the Matviivka district of the Mykolaiv region.
“We cannot run away from war”
In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv expects a new Russian offensive in the Donetsk region, forming the Donbass – partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists – with that of Luhansk whose Russians have claimed to have completely seized.
The death toll from the Russian bombardment on Sunday of an apartment building in Chassiv Iar, in this same mining basin, has risen to at least 45 dead, according to the latest report from Ukrainian relief.
In Bakhmout, another town in the Donetsk region, artillery fire was heard Tuesday in an almost deserted city center.
“You can’t run away from war and you never know where it will find you,” simply summed up Lioubov Mojayeva, a 60-year-old agronomist.
“The front is getting closer,” notes, resigned, Dmytro Podkuyidko, a town hall official.
In the northeast, in Kharkiv, five people were injured in new shelling, regional authorities said.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the embassy of the separatist province of Donetsk was inaugurated on Tuesday, in the absence of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose arrival had nevertheless been announced.