Grain shipments continue, power outage in Kyiv – politics

The power went out when she tried to turn on the coffee maker, wrote Ukrainian politician Inna Sovsun on Twitter. The explosions followed three minutes later. The Russian army launched rocket attacks on cities across Ukraine on Monday morning. Detonations were reported from Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, among others. The target of the attacks was again primarily the civilian infrastructure. The mayor of Kharkiv wrote on Telegram, trams and the subway were canceled and the water supply was impaired. Vitali Klitschko, the Mayor of Kyiv, also wrote on Telegram, work is being done to restore power to the entire capital. In Kyiv, too, the water supply is said to have failed in a large part of the city area, and citizens were asked to get water from public fountains.

Many people had spent Monday morning on the subway to protect themselves from the attacks. Individual deaths were also reported, but the exact number of victims of the attacks is not yet known. The Russian shelling could easily have caused more damage: Russian troops are said to have fired more than 50 rockets, but Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted 44. isolated debris are said to have even struck the Republic of Moldova.

With Russian troops in Ukraine currently appearing to be capable of little more than defending the occupied territories, Moscow is doing everything it can to keep pressure on Kyiv and the West. Just over the weekend, Russia announced that it intends to indefinitely suspend the agreement concluded in July, which guarantees the safe export of grain and other food from Ukraine. Moscow had repeatedly threatened to take this step before. The reason given was a drone attack on the base of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in Crimea. According to Russian sources, the water drones launched near Odessa used the agreed shipping corridor for grain transport before changing course towards Sevastopol. At least one of the drones is said to have been launched from one of the grain trucks. There is no evidence for these allegations.

Despite the termination of the agreement by the Russian side, several freighters are said to have continued their journeys on Monday. Twelve ships are said to be currently en route to Istanbul, with at least four en route to Ukraine. Hundreds of other ships are awaiting inspection and clearance to proceed, both to Ukraine and to their ports of destination. On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan advocated a continuation of the grain agreement he mediated. “Even if Russia is hesitant because it has not received the same benefits, we will resolutely continue our efforts in the service of humanity,” he said. At the weekend, Russia’s termination was sharply criticized internationally. The rocket attacks on civilian facilities and the cancellation of the grain agreement for almost no reason attest to a certain perplexity in the Kremlin as to how the war could still be turned around.

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The transports, which apparently continued on Monday, now raise the question of whether the export of food from Ukraine would also be possible without the grain agreement and Russian approval. In the summer, the main purpose of the agreement was to lift the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports and clear minefields. It is questionable whether the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which had been hit by several attacks, would ever be able to blockade again. Moscow’s accusation that drones were also launched from freighters can be understood as a warning that Russia could also identify transport ships as a danger and attack them. However, the freighters do not only sail under the Ukrainian flag and many have an international crew, so their cargo is urgently needed on the world market. An attack on the ships or just an attempted blockade would be another international affront to countries in Africa and Asia, which Russia can probably not afford at the moment.