The essentials in brief:
- Selensky wants grain exports without Russia
- Russian offensive at Kharkiv
- Crimean bridge passable again
- UN warn of escalation of war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is counting on talks with the United Nations and Turkey to continue the grain agreement without Moscow. Zelenskyy said he wrote letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russia has destroyed the stable food supply, but the states in Asia, Africa and Europe have a right to stability. “The Black Sea Grains Initiative can and should continue – if without Russia, then without Russia.”
Need protection from the “madness of Russia”
The world has an opportunity to show that blackmail will not be tolerated over who has enough food on the table. Protection from the “madness of Russia” is needed.
Zelenskyj stressed that the agreement with the United Nations and Turkey remains in force. It just has to be implemented. With the agreement, Ukraine had been exporting grain across the Black Sea since last summer, despite the war.
Moscow makes demands
The agreement brokered by the UN and Turkey with Russia to ship Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea officially expired on Monday at 11:00 p.m. CEST. Russia canceled the agreement on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said his country could only return to fulfilling the agreement if demands for the export of Russian grain were met.
The expiration of the agreement is internationally lamented. It is reviving fears of rising grain and food prices. Thanks to the agreement, Ukraine has been able to export grain by sea since last summer, despite the Russian war of aggression. More than 1000 ships brought almost 33 million tons abroad. The freighter “TQ Samsun” en route to the Netherlands was the last ship to be inspected in Istanbul on Monday.
Car traffic over the Crimean bridge is running again
According to the Russian government, traffic on the Crimean bridge, which was damaged by explosions, was resumed on Tuesday night with restrictions. According to Russian agencies, only one of the two lanes will be used, said Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnullin.
The strategically important bridge on the peninsula annexed in 2014 was damaged on Monday night. According to Russian information, she was attacked with unmanned remote-controlled boats. Part of the road collapsed as a result of the explosion. Moscow blames Ukraine; President Vladimir Putin threatened military retaliation.
Russian attacks in the south and east
According to Ukrainian sources, the south and east of Ukraine were the target of Russian air attacks during the night. The port city of Odessa and the regions of Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Dnipro are threatened by Russian drone strikes, the Ukrainian Air Force said on the news app Telegram.
Russia may also use ballistic weapons to attack Poltava, Cherkassy, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kirovohradska regions. The head of the Odessa region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper, expects several waves of attacks.
The Ukrainian military also reports intensive Russian attacks in the Kupyansk area of the Kharkiv region. There, the Russian army launched an offensive to break through the Ukrainian lines.
Russia has been waging a war of aggression against the neighboring country for almost 17 months. A Ukrainian counter-offensive is currently underway. The military information could not be independently verified. But the nightly situation report by the General Staff in Kiev also mentioned the front near Kupyansk as a focal point of the fighting. The Ukrainian troops withstood the attack, the report said.
100,000 soldiers at Kupyansk and Lyman
A press officer from the Ukrainian army spoke on television of an alleged 100,000 men that Russia had massed on the Kupyansk and Lyman front sectors. The Russian army is also sending other forces, especially airborne troops, to the city of Bakhmut, General Syrskyj reported.
Their mission is to stop the recapture of the places around Bakhmut by the Ukraine. The Ukrainian troops evacuated Bakhmut themselves after months of fighting. In their major offensive, however, they advance again north and south of the city.
DiCarlo warns war will escalate
The top UN diplomat, Rosemary DiCarlo, has called for an end to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and warned against it expanding. “The longer this war lasts, the more dangerous its consequences – including the possibility of a major conflict,” the UN political affairs chief told the UN Security Council in New York on Monday. For the “good of the Ukrainian people and for the good of our world community,” the senseless, unjustified war must end, the American continued.
By invading the neighboring country, Russia violated the UN Charter and international law. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also attended the meeting of the most powerful UN body.
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from war zones cannot be independently verified.
haz/fw (dpa, rtr, afp, ap)
Source: DW
