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Agencies

The first shipment of Ukrainian grain left the port of Odesa on Monday under a deal aimed at relieving a global food crisis following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
The blockage of deliveries from warring Russia and Ukraine – two of the world’s biggest grain exporters – has contributed to soaring food prices, hitting the world’s poorest nations especially hard.
Last month both sides signed a landmark deal with Türkiye and the United Nations aimed at relieving the global food crisis.
“The ship Razoni has left the port of Odesa bound for Tripoli in Lebanon,” Türkiye’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“It is expected in Istanbul on August 2. It will then continue its journey after it has been inspected in Istanbul.”
Other convoys would follow, respecting the maritime corridor and the agreed formalities, it said.
Ukraine-Russia war hangs over UN meeting on nuclear weapons
The Joint Coordination Centre, the organisation overseeing the grain exports, said the Razoni is carrying “over 26,000 metric tonnes” of maize.
Ukrainian officials have said there were 17 ships docked in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports with almost 600,000 tonnes of cargo. Of them, 16 held Ukrainian grain with a total volume of about 580,000 tonnes.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres “warmly welcomes” the departure of the ship and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed it as a “relief for the world”.
“The day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as the first Ukrainian grain leaves Odesa after months of Russian blockade. Ukraine has always been a reliable partner and will remain one should Russia respect its part of the deal,” Kuleba tweeted.
Russia has denied responsibility for the food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for slowing exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.
While the much needed grain exports will be welcomed, the war in Ukraine rages on.
On Sunday Russian missiles pounded Ukraine’s port city Mykolayiv on the Black Sea and President Vladimir Putin signed a new naval doctrine casting the United States as Russia’s main rival and setting maritime ambitions in the Black Sea and Arctic.
Putin did not mention the conflict in Ukraine during a Navy Day speech but said the navy would receive hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in coming months. The missiles can travel at nine times the speed of sound, outrunning air defences.

Navy Day celebrations in the port of Sevastopol were disrupted when five Russian navy staff members were injured by an explosion after a suspected drone flew into the courtyard of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Crimean port city’s Governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, told Russian media.
The local mayor blamed “Ukrainian nationalists” for the attack that forced the cancellation of festivities marking Russia’s annual holiday celebrating the navy.
But Ukraine’s navy accused Russia of staging the attacks as a pretext to cancel the festivities.
Russia says it invited UN, Red Cross experts to probe jail deaths in Ukraine
In Ukraine, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said more than 12 missile strikes on Sunday, probably the most powerful on the city in five months of war, hit homes and schools, with two people confirmed killed and three wounded. Missile strikes continued into Sunday evening.
Ukrainian grain tycoon Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon, and his wife were killed in their home, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.
Headquartered in Mykolaiv, a strategically important city that borders the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region, Nibulon specialises in the production and export of wheat, barley and corn, and has its own fleet and shipyard.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Vadatursky’s death as “a great loss for all of Ukraine”.
With the war in Ukraine now in its sixth month, Ukrainian forces are scaling up attacks to reclaim territory in the Russian-occupied south.
The Ukrainians have used American-supplied rocket launchers to strike bridges and military infrastructure in the south, forcing Russia to divert its forces from the Donbas in the east to counter the new threat.
Lebanon seizes ship carrying ‘stolen’ Ukrainian grain
Ukraine has vowed to drive the Russians from territory they have seized since the start of the invasion, including the southern region of Kherson and part of the Zaporizhzhia region, while Moscow has pledged to hold on to the occupied areas and take more ground around the country.
The Donbas consists of Luhansk province, now fully controlled by Russia, and Donetsk province, about half of which is in Moscow’s hands.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov noted that by stepping up the attacks in the south, Kyiv has forced Russia to spread its forces.




“The Russian military command has been put before a dilemma: to try to press the offensive in the Donetsk region or build up defences in the south,” Zhdanov said. “It’s going to be difficult for them to perform both tasks simultaneously for a long time.”
He noted that rather than trying to mount a massive, all-out counteroffensive, the Ukrainians have sought to undermine the Russian military in the south with a series of strikes on its munitions and fuel depots and other key sites.
“It doesn’t have to be a head-on attack,” Zhdanov noted.
Zelensky orders mandatory evacuations in Ukraine’s Donetsk
Ukraine has received about a dozen American-built HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and has used them to strike Russian ammunition depots, which are essential for maintaining Moscow’s edge in firepower.
HIMARS systems have a range of 80km (50 miles), enabling the Ukrainians to hit the Russians from beyond the reach of most of Russia’s artillery.
In a series of attacks that helped boost the country’s morale, the Ukrainians repeatedly used HIMARS to strike a key bridge across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region, cutting traffic across it and raising potential supply problems for Russian forces in the area.
Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Associated Press


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Ukraine war

‘Relief for world’ as first Ukraine grain ship since start of war departs Odesa

The bulk carrier Razoni leaving port in Odesa, Ukraine on Monday. Photo: AP

Ships docked at the port in Odesa, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: Planet Labs PBC via AP

President Vladimir Putin has signed a new naval doctrine casting the United States as Russia’s main rival. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine-Russia war hangs over UN meeting on nuclear weapons

Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missiles in Red Square during the 2020 Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia. File photo: AP

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Reuters

A man fishes in front of the Russian ‘Severodvinsk’ nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine outside St Petersburg, Russia. Photo: AP

Ukraine war: Russia says it has invited UN, Red Cross experts to probe jail deaths

Yuliana, girlfriend of a defender of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, attends a rally demanding to recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism after killing Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in a prison in Olenivka, outside of Donetsk, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 30, 2022. Photo: Reuters

Satellite photo of the Olenivka detection centre, in Eastern Donetsk province, after an attack on the prison reportedly killed Ukrainian soldiers captured in May after the fall of Mariupol. Russia has invited UN and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths. Photo: Maxar Technologies via AP

Ukraine war: Lebanon seizes ship carrying ‘stolen’ Ukrainian grain

The ship “Laodicea” docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon. A Lebanese prosecutor ordered the seizure on Saturday of a Syrian-flagged ship that docked at a northern port with a cargo of Ukrainian grain Kyiv’s embassy in Beirut said was “illegal”.Photo: Reuters

Syrian flag flutters on the ship “Laodicea” as it is docked at port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Friday. Photo: Reuters

The stern of the grain-laden Syrian-flagged ship Laodicea is docked in Lebanon’s northern port of Tripoli on Saturday. A Lebanese prosecutor ordered “the seizure of the ship until the investigation is completed”, instructing the police to consult the Ukraine embassy after it claimed that the grain cargo was loaded from a region occupied by Russian forces. Photo: AFP

Zelensky orders mandatory evacuations in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as fighting intensifies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, Ukraine on Friday. Photo: Ukrainian Press Service / AFP 

A car moves past a crater on Kherson’s Antonovsky bridge across the Dnipro river. The Russian army has used the Antonovsky bridge as a key resupply route into Kherson. Photo: AFP

Relatives of defenders of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol hold a rally demanding to recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, in Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

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Shipment made possible after Türkiye and UN brokered Russia-Ukraine deal
Ukrainian forces scale up attacks to reclaim territory in Russian-occupied south



A ship carrying grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa for foreign markets under a safe passage agreement – the first departure since the Russian invasion blocked shipping through the Black Sea five months ago.


‘Relief for world’ as first Ukraine grain ship since start of war departs Odesa

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Shipment made possible after Türkiye and UN brokered Russia-Ukraine deal Ukrainian forces scale up attacks to reclaim territory in Russian-occupied south

Shipment made possible after Türkiye and UN brokered Russia-Ukraine deal

Ukrainian forces scale up attacks to reclaim territory in Russian-occupied south