As Kyiv announced on Tuesday that obligatory evacuations from the war-torn Donetsk area had begun, the first cargo of grain to leave Ukraine under a deal to alleviate Russia’s naval blockade was expected in Istanbul “after midnight.
An agreement between Turkey and the United Nations and a Sierra Leone-registered ship set sail from Odessa port for Lebanon today in hopes of getting millions of tonnes of trapped Ukrainian products to the world market and preventing a worldwide food crisis.
In the words of Turkish officials, the ship will arrive in Istanbul “after midnight.”
With great care, they made their way gingerly along a specially cleared tunnel in the mine-infested waters of the Black Sea.
According to Marine Traffic, the ship, which is carrying 26,000 tons of corn, is currently off the coast of Bulgaria.
Before it is allowed to proceed, it will be reviewed by a special coordination center that includes representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations.
As a result of the five-month suspension in grain delivery from Ukraine, which is one of the world’s largest exporters, the world’s poorest nations have been particularly heavily hit.
According to Kyiv, at least 16 more grain ships are awaiting departure, although President Volodymyr Zelensky urged prudence.
Zelensky said in a video message late Monday, “Let’s wait and see how the arrangement works and whether security will be truly ensured.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, this was the first meaningful agreement between the two countries.
Russia, on the other hand, has continued to bombard Ukraine’s wide front line with airstrikes.
After Zelensky urged the estimated 200,000 remaining civilians to leave, Kiev announced that it had begun obligatory evacuations from the eastern province of Donetsk, which bears the brunt of the Russian offensive.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vershchuk said a train carrying “women, children, old people, many individuals with impaired mobility” arrived in Kropyvnytskyi on Tuesday morning, according to a statement.
As a result of the damage to the region’s gas infrastructure, officials said they want to evacuate inhabitants before the cold weather sets in.
two people were killed in a minibus that was trying to flee from the Kherson region, according to the chairman of Ukraine’s Kryviy Rig military administration.
At least two more passengers, according to Oleksander Vilkul, are in critical condition after suffering burns while traveling.
The mayor of Mykolaiv, the nearest Ukrainian city to Kherson, reported that a university dormitory had been damaged by Russian airstrikes.
Since the invasion, 403 people have been killed in his district, but a coming Ukraine counter-offensive for the nearby Kherson region “will result in a drop in bombardment,” he stated during an interview.
In order to reclaim Kherson, Ukraine has received more Western weapons, particularly long-range artillery, from the United States.
The United States has announced a $550 million package of arms for Ukraine’s military, including ammo for rocket launchers and artillery guns that are becoming increasingly vital.
Officials in Ukraine’s defense ministry said they are prepared to fight through the night to drive out the Russian invading force.
Russia’s “irresponsible and hazardous” discussion about possibly deploying nuclear weapons has been slammed by the United States, Britain, and France in a UN assessment of a crucial nuclear pact.
“There will be no winners in a nuclear war,” Vladimir Putin said at the Tenth Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, in response to the claim.
Despite this, the Kremlin accused the United Kingdom, one of Kyiv’s most vociferous allies, of purposefully harming relations between Russia and the West.
British nationals, including Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and former Prime Minister David Cameron, were placed on a blacklist by the European Union for contributing to the hostile course of London, aimed at demonizing our country and its worldwide isolation.
