Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the explosive mines of the Ukrainian ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol, captured by Russian forces, have been removed and they are ready to resume grain shipments.
In televised comments, Shoigu said that since the start of the operation, which Russia calls a “special military operation,” 6,489 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to Russian forces, 126 of them in the past five days.
On the 3rd, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with the Rossiya-1 broadcaster, denied that Moscow is blocking grain exports from Ukrainian ports and stated that as long as sanctions against the country remain, the best solution would be to send them via Belarus. is removed.
Putin said reports that his government was blocking exports were a “bluff” by Western countries to cover up their political mistakes.
Grain sales to African countries
According to The New York Times, Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine since February, is reportedly trying to sell the looted wheat in the country headed by Volodymyr Zelensky to African countries. The warning has been issued by the United States, and the acquisition targets will be countries affected by drought, some even with populations facing starvation problems.
Grain production in Ukraine accounts for one-tenth of worldwide wheat exports, and by mid-May, the United States had sent a warning to 14 countries, primarily in Africa, that Russian cargo ships were said to have departed, according to the newspaper. Ports near Ukraine are littered with what has been called “stolen Ukrainian grain.”
According to the publication, the American alarm has put African countries in a great dilemma. Take advantage of potential war crimes and please a powerful Western ally, or refuse cheap food at a time when wheat prices are rising and hundreds of thousands are starving.
The alert issued by Washington confirms the Ukrainian government’s claims that Russia has stolen 500,000 tons of wheat worth $100 million since the Russian invasion in February.
Fierce fighting in Severodonetsk
According to Kyiv officials, Ukrainian and Russian forces were engaged in “intense combat” on Tuesday in the streets of Severodonetsk, a strategic city in the eastern Donbass region.
“Our heroes are holding their positions in Severodonetsk. Intense street fighting continues,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday night, hours after warning that Russian troops were “more numerous and stronger”.
Severodonetsk mayor Oleksandr Striuk announced that “the situation is changing hourly” with “intense urban conflicts” in the city that Kiev has taken under its control in the Luhansk region.
The two eastern Ukrainian regions make up the Donbass mining basin, which since 2014 has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists and has been Moscow’s primary target as it has given up its conquest of Kiev.
*With information from Reuters, AFP and Ansa
source: Noticias
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