Thirteen Russian missiles hit a military airfield and railway infrastructure in central Ukraine’s Kirohovrad region on Saturday, killing and injuring several people, the local governor said.
Andriy Raikovych wrote on Telegram that rescue workers were working at the impact sites and that a small district in the regional capital, Kropyvnytskyi, was left without electricity as a result of the attacks.
According to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, Russia launched a missile attack on the port of Odessa, “breaking its promises and undermining its commitments to the United Nations (UN) and Turkey. on the Istanbul Agreement”.
Russia and Ukraine sign agreement to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports
Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on Friday to reopen Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea for grain exports.
Government ministers from Russia and Ukraine signed the agreement separately, carefully avoiding sitting at the same table and avoiding shaking hands at the event in Istanbul, Turkey.
“Today, there is a lighthouse on the Black Sea. A beacon of hope, possibility and relief in a world that needs it more than ever,” said Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at a signing ceremony, urging Russia and Ukraine to implement the agreement.
Guterres said the agreement paves the way for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three major Ukrainian ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny, and the UN would establish a coordination center to monitor the agreement’s implementation.
But fighting continued unabated in eastern Ukraine and, underlining the deep enmity and mistrust leading to Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, Russian and Ukrainian representatives refused to sit at the same table at the ceremony, and the two countries’ display. flags have been adjusted so that they are no longer close together.
“In case of provocation, (there will be) an immediate military response” from Ukraine, tweeted Mykhailo Podolyak.
Russia and Ukraine, both among the world’s biggest food exporters, sent their defense and infrastructure ministers, respectively, to Istanbul for the signing ceremony, which was also attended by Guterres and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
A blockade of Ukrainian ports by the Russian Black Sea fleet, trapping tens of millions of tons of grain in silos and stranding many ships, has exacerbated global supply chain bottlenecks and, along with sweeping Western sanctions, fueled rampant inflation in commodity prices. food and energy around the world.
Moscow has denied responsibility for the worsening food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for slowing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for mining near its Black Sea ports.
UN officials told reporters on Friday that the agreement should be fully operational in a few weeks.
Safe passage in and out of the port would be guaranteed in what one official called a “de facto port ceasefire” for the covered ships and facilities, they said, although the word “ceasefire” was not in the text of the agreement. .
Although Ukraine has mined areas close to the sea as part of its defenses against the five-month Russian invasion, Ukrainian pilots would guide ships through safe channels in its territorial waters, they said.
Monitored by an Istanbul-based Joint Coordination Center, the ships would transit the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait and onward to world markets, the UN said. said officials.
The agreement will be valid for 120 days, but renewable and not expected to be terminated anytime soon.
“The fact that two warring parties – and still very much at war – were able to negotiate such an agreement, I think is unprecedented,” the official said.
Another said a separate pact signed on Friday would facilitate Russian exports of food and fertilizer and that the United Nations and the US welcomed clarifications from the European Union that its sanctions would not apply to such shipments.
To address Russian concerns about ships smuggling weapons into Ukraine, all returning ships will be inspected at a Turkish port by representatives from all parties and overseen by the JCC.
The overall objective is to help prevent hunger among tens of millions of people in poorer countries by injecting more wheat, sunflower oil, fertilizers and other products into world markets, including for humanitarian needs, in part at lower prices.
The United States welcomed the agreement and said it was focusing on holding Russia accountable for implementing it.
Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that has good relations with Russia and Ukraine, controls the straits leading to the Black Sea and has acted as a mediator on the grain issue.
Source: CNN Brasil
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