Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul to signal a deal that will reopen the Black Sea to grain exports.
U. S. intelligence estimates that Russia is suffering heavy losses and has eliminated more than a hundred “high-value” targets.
Areas such as command posts and ammunition depots are the main targets the United States believes Ukraine has eliminated.
By Alex Rossi, press correspondent, in Dnipro, Ukraine
If you are optimistic, this agreement is an ordinary act of international relations that deserves to help alleviate hunger in some of the poorest places in the world.
But if you are pessimistic, the ink of this document may not have much value in practice: Ukraine and Russia are still trapped in a terrible fratricidal war where enmity and suspicion of motives know no bounds.
For now, the half-full glass brigade probably has it. The agreement known as the Black Sea Initiative is a very specific ceasefire at sea.
For example, Ukraine’s main port city, Odessa, will not be affected by the hostilities, but the portions needed to export grain will be.
Operationally, exports will be monitored through a joint center, controlled through the 4 partners: the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine will secure and pilot the ships through passages. The Black Sea has been heavily mined to deter a Russian amphibious attack and Russia will make sure not to open fire when ships head for the waters of the Bosphorus and Turkey.
But as with all ceasefires, the genuine commodity in all of this will be to accept as true and that, international relations, or not international relations, is rare.
Russia is accused of militarizing food in this confrontation; as a tactic to exacerbate the migration crisis in the global south, it can dictate, to some extent, European policy. The arrival of gigantic numbers of hungry Africans to the continent, according to the argument. – weaken the electorate’s will to continue the Ukrainian war and the source of Western weapons that help fight in Kyiv.
Food as a weapon also strongly persuades “partners,” especially in Africa, to support, or at least criticize, their invasion of a sovereign nation.
The Kremlin, of course, denies all this and accuses draconian Western sanctions of being at the root of the crisis.
Either way, it’s easy to see how this fragile deal can fail.
And if so, it will not only be Ukrainian farmers who will pay the price, but millions of other people who are already suffering from the global cost-of-living crisis to survive.
The foreign minister of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region said he was determined to achieve the independence and unification imaginable with Russia.
Vitaly Ignatyev, the foreign minister of the unrecognized government, told reporters that the region’s priority remains “independence” and “subsequent free access to the Russian Federation. “
He said: “This is what the other inhabitants of Transnistria need, but what it will be like and whether Russia and the other Russians will need it; we’ll work in that direction and we’ll see. “
By context: Transnistria has been under the control of the separatist government since the 1992 war with Moldova.
It has about 470,000 inhabitants and houses a regiment of about 1,000 Russian soldiers.
The independence of the region is identified through the pro-Western government of Moldova or the foreign community.
The Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine met with Ukrainian infantry soldiers and sailors in the UK.
Volodymyr Havrylov met with British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey and visited parliamentarians to discuss additional needs to fulfill the wishes of Ukraine’s armed forces amid the country’s war with Russia.
The two ministers travelled to Scotland, where Ukrainian sailors are being trained through the Royal Navy to operate Sandown-class minesweeper ships, the location not revealed for protection reasons.
There, they spoke to the Royal Navy’s apprentices and instructors and watched them practice key skills at sea, such as weapons exercises and damage control, while learning how to operate the ships’ machines.
Ministers also attended the Ukrainian infantry meeting at Salisbury Plain in England.
Mr. Havrylov said: “I have noticed that the brotherhood of Ukrainian and British infantrymen combine to achieve a common purpose: the combat functions of the Ukrainian army.
“We are very grateful to the government and others in the UK for their invaluable contribution to Ukraine’s good fortune by repelling russian aggressors. “
The Uk has provided military apparatus to Ukraine and introduced a programme for 10,000 Ukrainians.
Ahead of the upcoming deal on Ukraine’s grain exports, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he sought to “announce good news to the world. “
Turkey and the UN will oversee the signing of the documents this afternoon, with Ukraine and Russia signing the same agreement.
It was hoped that this would bring some relief to the global food crisis, which was caused in part by the Russian blockade of the Black Sea, which prevented the resource from leaving the country.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest suppliers of cereals.
President Zelenskyy’s adviser said that today’s signing of an agreement to end the Black Sea blockade will be between Ukraine, Turkey and the UN, Russia.
He says Russia will then signal a deal.
Three bodies were removed from the rubble of a school in Kharkiv after a Russian bombardment, authorities said.
Another 23 people were injured.
This comes after a spate of attacks on the city, which is the largest right now in Ukraine, near the country’s border with Russia.
Below is the view of Kharkiv as the heavy continues to dominate the area.
The Ukrainians protect the area, firing howitzers towards the Russian offensive.
Sergei Shoigu traveled to Turkey this morning to sign an agreement that will allow Ukraine to resume its grain exports by sea, Reuters reports.
This will mark a first step forward in resolving the global food crisis caused by Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea.
Shoigu will be accompanied by Ukraine’s infrastructure minister at the ceremony, which will be overseen by Turkey and the United Nations.
The lack of cereal exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s leading producers of the crop, is driving food costs around the world soaring.