Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Monday to deliver free grain to six African countries “in the coming weeks”, after the abandonment in July of the agreement allowing Ukraine to export freely.
In addition, Russia has again targeted agricultural machinery and production buildings in the district of Izmail (southwest), whose port, along the Danube, has become crucial for Ukrainian exports.
“We are about to conclude agreements with six African states” to which “we intend to supply free” cereals “in the coming weeks,” Vladimir Putin said at a press conference, without specifying the countries concerned.
He received in Sochi, in the south-west of Russia, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the rare leaders in NATO to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Kremlin and intermediary in the thorny file of exports of Ukrainian cereals.
The two men did not reveal major advances for Kiev, Vladimir Putin saying he was once again ready to “consider the possibility of resuscitating the agreement” as soon as his exports of agricultural products are no longer hampered.
The Turkish president is preparing for his part “new proposals” with the UN to “obtain results” but he did not give details on this subject.
The challenge is to negotiate the possible resumption – in time for the autumn harvest – of the vital grain agreement for the world’s food supply, which Moscow ended in mid-July.
Found under the auspices of Ankara and the United Nations in the summer of 2022, it aimed to protect grain exports through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
But the Kremlin criticizes the Western sanctions which, according to him, complicate the placing on the international market of Russian products and awaits concrete solutions to return to the agreement.
These discussions come at a time when the number of drone attacks on Ukrainian soil, but also on Russian territory, has increased significantly in recent weeks.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, Ukraine says it destroyed 23 explosive drones launched by Russia in the south, a dozen having touched its ground, without however causing any casualties.
The governor of Odessa, in the southwest, Oleg Kiper deplored the damage to “warehouses, production buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises” in the district of Izmail.
Located on the banks of the Danube, the port of the same name has become an important passage for Ukrainian exports since the re-establishment of the blockade in the Black Sea.
In the night from Saturday to Sunday, Russian machines had already hit industrial sites on the Danube, according to the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
The Russian army had, for its part, said it had carried out a raid against “fuel depots used to supply the military equipment of the Ukrainian army”.
On Monday, she claimed to have destroyed four military launches carrying Ukrainian soldiers in the Black Sea.
The boats were traveling overnight from Sunday to Monday towards the west of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, assured the Russian Ministry of Defense.
For its part, Ukraine on Monday claimed limited territorial gains on the southern front – the subject of all attention since Kiev said it opened a small breach around the town of Robotyne – and the recovery of three km2 near Bakhmout , in the East.
Modest successes swept away by Vladimir Putin who once again considered this counter-offensive a “failure” on Monday and hoped that it would remain “like that” thereafter.
In Kiev, the authorities reported a new bomb alert received for all schools in the capital, before ensuring that it was false, three days after the first, which had also proven to be unfounded, the day of the new school year on September 1st.
And Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov has officially resigned, the day after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced his replacement on Sunday, after several corruption scandals, in the midst of a conflict with Russia.
04/09/2023 17:40:17 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
