DIRECT. War in Ukraine: first grain exports expected “this week”

China’s investments in Russia under the global infrastructure project for a New Silk Road fell to zero in the first half of 2022, according to the FinancialTimes. This New Silk Road is a set of sea and land connections that cross continental Europe and northern Africa, passing through the Middle East around the Mediterranean basin, to reach China. Started in 2013, it was the top priority of Chinese diplomacy under Xi Jinping. But this is the first time since the launch of the program that China has not invested in Russia.

Even if Chinese purchases of Russian energy have increased, according to the newspaper, China has, on the other hand, deepened its investments with the Middle East in particular in Saudi Arabia with agreements worth 5.5 billion dollars. in the field of energy and construction.

“We expect the agreement to start working in the next few days and we expect a coordination center to be set up in Istanbul in the next few days. We are preparing everything to start this week,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov told a press conference.

The UK will host the next Eurovision Song Contest instead of Ukraine, the British government has announced. “Following a request from the European Broadcasting Union (which is organizing the event) and the Ukrainian authorities, the BBC has agreed to host the competition next year,” the company said in a statement. British Culture Minister Nadine Dorries, when the United Kingdom took second place last May.

“I sleep with my clothes on so I can get out quickly if there is an airstrike,” says an elderly resident at the Guardianwhich devotes a long report to the situation on the spot.

Russian strikes on Odessa should not prevent grain exports, the Kremlin said this morning. The bombardments “target the military infrastructure only. It is not at all related to the infrastructure used for the implementation of the grain export agreement, which is why it cannot and should not interfere with the start of the loading process, “said the carrier. -spokesman of the Russian Presidency, Dmitry Peskov.

“Despite the lunar comments from both sides, […] most sectors have remained fairly calm”, analyzes on Twitter Olivier Kempf, director of the strategic cabinet La Vigie and associate researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research.

Since February 24, the date of the attack on Ukraine by Russia, there has been no respite in the fighting on the fronts of Mykolaiv (South), in the regions of Kharkiv (North-East) or Kherson ( South) but also in the two pro-Russian separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk in the East. We take stock in this article.

British intelligence “has identified a Russian military vehicle reconditioning facility near Barvinok in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, 10 km from the Ukrainian border”.

“Russian commanders continue to face a dilemma, either to resume the offensive in the east, or to strengthen the defense in the west,” said the British Ministry of Defense in its latest bulletin.

Barely 24 hours after announcing a historic agreement to allow the evacuation of grain, the main Ukrainian port was hit by Russian missiles. Yet another contradiction between words and actions on the part of the Kremlin, that we decipher in this article.

The war that Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging against Ukraine is also “a war against the unity of Europe”, criticizes German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “The war that Putin is waging against Ukraine is also a war against the unity of Europe. We must not allow ourselves to be divided, we must not allow the great work of a united Europe which we have begun so promising to be destroyed,” he declared during a speech in Paderborn.

kyiv vowed to launch a counter-offensive to retake the strategic region of Kherson, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were advancing “step by step”. But “we really don’t have enough artillery”, warns a soldier, Stanislav, according to whom “if we fire eight times, the Russians retaliate 48 times”

While Ukrainian forces are gaining the advantage in the Kherson area, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his compatriots on Sunday evening to “be united and work together for victory”, before “celebrating for the first time the Day of Sovereignty of Ukraine, July 28”.

And welcome to this direct dedicated to the evolution of the conflict in Ukrainewhich began five months ago.