UN chief urges more effort to ensure access to Ukrainian grain
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said there was still much more to do to ensure full global access to Ukrainian food products and Russian food and fertilisers after a UN-brokered food export deal.
At a briefing in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, Guterres said developing countries needed help to buy such grain and called for unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilisers which are not subject to sanctions.
“This is an agreement between two parties locked in bitter conflict. It is unprecedented in scope and scale. But there is still a long way to go on many fronts,” he said.
“It is time for massive and generous support so developing countries can purchase the food from this and other ports – and people can buy it,” he said.
UN chief arrives in Odesa
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa during his visit to Ukraine, focusing on a deal to allow Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets.
Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a high level meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
Earlier this summer, the UN and Turkey brokered an agreement clearing the way for Ukraine to export 22 million tons of corn and other grain stuck in its Black Sea ports since the Russian invasion.
The blockage has worsened world food shortages, driven up prices and heightened fears of famine, especially in Africa.
Russian villages evacuated after fire at munitions depot
The residents of two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region on Ukraine’s northeastern border have been evacuated after a fire at a munitions depot near the village of Timonovo.
The fire is the latest in a series of destructive incidents on Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine or inside Russia itself.
Roughly 1,100 people live in the villages of Timonovo and Soloti, about 25km (15 miles) from the Ukrainian border. There were no casualties in the late Thursday blaze, the Belgorod region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russian control of Zaporizhzhia plant guarantees no ‘Chernobyl scenario’: Moscow
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said that Russia’s military presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine is a guarantee against what he called a “Chernobyl scenario”, referring to the 1986 nuclear catastrophe.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechaev said on Thursday that a UN proposal to demilitarise the area around the nuclear plant was “unacceptable”.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, was occupied by Russia in March. It remains near the front line and has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the facility.
Russia calls UN idea to demilitarise Zaporizhzhia plant unacceptable
Russia’s foreign ministry has rejected a proposal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to demilitarise the area around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, saying it would make the facility “more vulnerable”.
The plant, Europe’s largest of its kind, was captured by Russia in March, shortly after President Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what he called a “special military operation”.
Fears have grown in recent weeks over its safety and the risks of a possible Fukushima-style nuclear accident after Ukraine and Russia accused each other of shelling it.
Ukraine says Russia plans to disconnect nuclear plant’s power blocks from grid
Ukraine’s Energoatom state nuclear company has said Russian forces planned to switch off the functioning power blocks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and to disconnect them from the Ukrainian power grid.
In a statement, Energoatom said it believed that Russia, which controls the power plant in southern Ukraine, was preparing to conduct a “large-scale provocation” there.
Moscow itself accused Kyiv of preparing a “provocation” at the site on Thursday.
ERG halts iron ore supply to Russia’s MMK due to sanctions
Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) has halted iron ore supplies to Russia’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Work (MMK) from its giant Kazakh operation due to Western sanctions against the Russian company, according to ERG Chairman Alexander Mashkevich.
MMK was once the main buyer of iron ore from ERG’s Sokolov-Sarybai Mining Production Association (SSGPO) unit located in Kazakhstan’s northern Kostanay province, close to the Russian border.
The United States included MMK, one of the world’s largest steel producers, and its majority owner Viktor Rashnikov in its latest round of sanctions this month.
Russian rouble nears four-week high versus dollar
The Russian rouble firmed to a near four-week high against the dollar in early trade, supported by month-end tax payments that boost demand for the Russian currency, while shares in fertiliser producer PhosAgro surged after strong results.
At 07:04 GMT, the rouble was 0.5 percent stronger against the dollar at 59.20 after briefly hitting 57.70, a level last seen on July 25. Against the euro, the rouble gained 0.9 percent to 59.65.
The rouble is set to see support from month-end taxes that usually prompt export-focused companies to increase conversion of their foreign currency revenues to meet local duties.
Washington readies about $800m in additional Ukraine security aid
President Joe Biden’s administration is readying about $800m of additional military aid for Ukraine and could announce it as soon as Friday, three sources familiar with the matter have told the Reuters news agency.
Biden would authorise the assistance using his Presidential drawdown authority, which allows the president to transfer excess weapons from US stocks, the sources said
Seventeen dead in two attacks on Kharkiv: Official
A total of 17 people have been killed and 42 were injured in two separate Russian attacks on the major northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to the regional governor.
Three civilians were killed and 17 wounded in a pre-dawn rocket strike, the local emergency service said. That followed a Russian attack on Kharkiv, in which the emergency service initially said 12 people were killed.
Governor Oleh Synehubov said more bodies had been discovered as rescuers picked their way through destroyed houses.
“As of now, 17 people have died in Kharkiv … and 42 people have been injured,” he wrote on Telegram, describing the attacks as “an act of terrorism”.
German economic outlook gloomy: Finance ministry
The economic outlook for Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is gloomy due to energy price rises and supply chain disruptions, the German finance ministry has said in its August monthly report.
The German economy stagnated in the second quarter, with the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices, the pandemic and supply disruptions bringing it to the edge of a downturn.
“The outlook for the further development (of the economy) is currently noticeably gloomy,” the ministry said in the report, adding that it was marked by “a high degree of uncertainty”.
“The significantly lower gas supplies from Russia, the persistently high price increases for energy and, increasingly, other goods, as well as the longer-than-expected supply chain disruptions, also in connection with China’s zero-COVID policy, are weighing heavily on the economy’s development,” it said.
