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Ukrainian-Russian trade blamed for nuclear plant damage

Three more vessels carrying thousands of tonnes of corn left the port of Ukraine on Friday. This is because the two countries have accused each other of damaging a major nuclear power plant in Ukraine as part of a grain trade between Kyiv and Moscow.

Ukrainian state nuclear power company Energoatom said Russian artillery struck the Zaporizhia power plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

"Three strikes were recorded on the site of a plant near one of the power plants where the reactor is installed," Energoatom said in a statement.

He said there were no signs that the damage caused a radiation leak.

Three strikes

The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian army was responsible for the damage to the plant.

"Ukrainian armed forces fired three times on the territory of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and in the city of Enerhodar," the ministry said in a statement.

"Fortunately, the Ukrainian shell did not collide with nearby oil and fuel facilities or oxygen plants, thus avoiding the possibility of a major fire or radiation accident," he said.

Russian troops have occupied factories in southern Ukraine since March.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of using plants as a shield for its army on Monday.

According to Reuters, officials from the Russian aid administration in Enerhodar said earlier this week that Ukrainian troops repeatedly attacked the plants.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video speech on Friday that Russia was committing an act of "nuclear terrorism."

"Russia must take responsibility for the very fact that it creates a threat to nuclear power plants," he said.

The Malta-flagged bulk carrier M/V Rojen, carrying tons of corn, leaves the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, before heading to Teesport in the United Kingdom, Aug. 5, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Bulk carrier M / V Rojen corn I left the port of Chorno Morsk in Ukraine and headed for Teesport in England on August 5, 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Corn shipments

Three more ships carrying thousands of metric tons of corn will leave the port of Ukraine on Friday Departs and permits the export of Ukrainian grain, which has held up since Russia invaded its neighbors in February.

The ship departed for Ireland, Great Britain and Turkey. Another ship,Razoni, left Ukraine on Monday for Lebanon, making the first grain transport through the Black Sea since the beginning of the war.

In New York on Friday, UN spokesman Stephen Dujaric said another vessel was heading to the port of Chorno Morsk in Ukraine to receive the grain cargo.

The United Nations and Turkey recently mediated the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal aimed at allowing Ukraine to export approximately 22 million tonnes of grain currently stagnant in silos and port storage facilities. Did. The deal aims to mitigate the global food crisis, which is characterized by soaring prices and food shortages in some regions.

Ukraine and Russia are major global suppliers of wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil, on which millions of people in Africa, the Middle East and some parts of Asia depend for survival. is.

As another hopeful sign, Ukraine's first deputy minister of agriculture, Taras Visotsky, said wheat could be exported through the port as early as next month from this year's harvest. Ukraine hopes to increase grain shipments through the route from the expected 1 million tonnes this month to 3 million to 3.5 million tonnes per month, according to Reuters. The

initiative will run for 120 days, ending in late November.

The unprocessed portion of nearly 30 ships stuck in a port in southern Ukraine due to the war is now in its sixth month. The Joint Coordination Center (JCC), established under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, states that vessels need to be moved so that they can enter the port and collect food for transport to the global market. increase.

Crew and cargo of vessels departing on Friday will be checked in the JCC inspection area in Turkish waters before heading to their destination.

The JCC states that it is currently testing multiple vessels in and out of a safe corridor, based on experience with the first vessel to depart on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan upon his arrival at the Rus sanatorium in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Aug. 5, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, Turkey's Legep Typ・ Greetings to President Putin On August 5, 2022, he arrived at the Ruth Sanatorium at the Black Sea Resort in Sochi, Russia.

Russian Erdogan

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Russia on Friday and Vladimir Putin. We had a meeting with the president. Grain trading, prospects for negotiations to end hostilities in Ukraine, and the situation in Syria.

In a statement issued at the end of the four-hour meeting in Sochi, Putin and Erdogan emphasized the "need for full performance" of grain trading.

They also stated that "a sincere, candid and credible relationship between Russia and Turkey" is important for world stability.

In another deployment on Friday, the Biden administration prepared the following security assistance package for Ukraine. The package is estimated to be worth $ 1 billion, according to Reuters, and is one of the largest US military aid packages to Ukraine to date.

On Thursday, Zelensky said he had blown up the human rights group Amnesty International, putting Ukrainian troops at risk to civilians by establishing bases in populated residential areas and operating weapons systems. The

report "unfortunately is trying to pardon the terrorist state and shift responsibility from the invaders to the victims," ​​Zelensky said. "If there can be no justification for Russia's attack on Ukraine. The attack on our nation is unprovoked, invasive and openly terrorist."

Oksana Pokarchuk, head of the Ukrainian office of Amnesty International, also disputed the report. In a Facebook post on Thursday, she said the Ukrainian office was "not involved in the preparation and writing" of the report, trying to prevent the material from being released.

Friday's Pokarchuk announced her resignation from Amnesty International in her Facebook post.

Amnesti said the researcher investigated Russia's strikes in Ukraine from April to July in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. "Researchers have found evidence that Ukrainian troops have begun strikes in populated residential areas and are based in private buildings in 19 towns and villages in the area," the organization said.

Some information in this report is from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.