Shift in war’s front seen as grain leaves Ukraine; plant hit
- 2 more ships carrying corn and soybeans departed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports taking the total to 10 since a deal to unblock exports was reached
- In peacetime, Ukraine exported up to six million tonnes of grain a month from its ports on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coast
Two more ships, carrying corn and soybeans, departed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Monday, Türkiye and Ukraine said, taking the total to 10 since the first ship sailed last week under a deal with Russia to unblock Ukrainian grain exports.
The United Nations and Türkiye brokered the agreement last month after warnings the halt in grain shipments caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.
The Sacura, which departed from Pivdennyi, is carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, Turkey’s defence ministry said on Monday, while the Arizona, which left Chornomorsk, is carrying 48,458 tonnes of corn to Iskenderun in southern Türkiye.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, confirmed both ships had left, adding Pivdennyi, the third Ukrainian port included in the deal, was finally up and running as part of the initiative.
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Kubrakov had said previously the opening of Pivdennyi would push Ukraine’s total export capacity up to three million tonnes a month.
In peacetime, Ukraine exported up to six million tonnes of grain a month from its ports on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coast.
The four ships that left Ukraine on Sunday are expected to anchor near Istanbul on Monday evening, Turkey’s defence ministry said, adding they would be inspected on Tuesday.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine for what it calls its “special military operation”, the two countries together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports.
02:20
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The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN personnel are working.
The Razoni, which was the first ship to depart, was expected to arrive in Lebanon on Sunday but is currently at anchor off Turkey’s southern coast, according to Refinitiv ship tracker data.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said on Sunday the Fulmar S, the first foreign-flagged bulk ship to reach the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk since the conflict, was ready for loading.
A second ship travelling to Ukraine, the Osprey S, was inspected in Istanbul on Sunday and was nearing Ukraine on Monday morning, Refinitiv data also showed.
New phase of the war
In a weekend analysis, Britain’s Defence Ministry said the Russian invasion that started February 24 “is about to enter a new phase” in which the fighting would shift to a roughly 350-kilometer (217-mile) front line extending from near the city of Zaporizhzhia to Russian-occupied Kherson.
That area includes the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station which came under fire late on Saturday. Each side accused the other of the attack.
Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator, Energoatom, said Russian shelling damaged three radiation monitors around the storage facility for spent nuclear fuels and that one worker was injured. Russian news agencies, citing the separatist-run administration of the plant, said Ukrainian forces fired those shells.
Russian forces have occupied the power station for months. Russian soldiers there took shelter in bunkers before Saturday’s attack, according to Energoatom.
Staff at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant ‘under Russian orders’
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently warned that the way the plant was being run and the fighting going on around it posed grave health and environmental threats.
For the last four months of the war, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years. Russian forces have made gradual headway in the region while launching missile and rocket attacks to curtail the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.
The Russians “are continuing to accumulate large quantities of military equipment” in a town across the Dnieper River from Russian-held Kherson, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank. Citing local Ukrainian officials, it said the preparations appeared designed to defend logistics routes to the city and establish defensive positions on the river’s left bank.
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Kherson came under Russian control early in the war and Ukrainian officials have vowed to retake it. It is just 227 kilometres (141 miles) from Odesa, home to Ukraine’s biggest port, so the conflict escalating there could have repercussions for the international grain deal.
The city of Mykolayiv, a shipbuilding centre that Russian forces bombard daily, is even closer to Odesa. The Mykolayiv region’s Governor, Vitaliy Kim, said an industrial facility on the regional capital’s outskirts came under fire early on Sunday.
Over the past day, five civilians were killed by Russian and separatist firing on cities in the Donetsk region, the part of Donbas still under Ukrainian control, the regional Governor, Serhiy Haidai, reported.
He and Ukrainian government officials have repeatedly urged civilians to evacuate.
