On wartime Russia rejoins key deal Ukrainian grain exports

To world markets Ukrainian grain and other commodities are ready to be shipped and thus Russia agreed an agreement that allows it to rejoin a wartime on Wednesday. Meanwhile, since the Russian invasion eight months ago at around 14 million the U.N.’s refugee chief, put the number of Ukrainians driven from their homes.

Filippo Grandi said, who heads the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees It is “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades”.

Moscow had received assurances that Ukraine would not use the humanitarian corridors to attack Russian forces, announcing that Russia would rejoin the grain pact, President Vladimir Putin said. If Kyiv breaks its word he warned that Russia reserves the right to withdraw again.

To get the deal back on track Putin praised Turkey’s mediation efforts as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “neutrality in the conflict as a whole”, at “ensuring the interest of the poorest countries” and his efforts. 

“His unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and for his active participation in maintaining the grain agreement”, he also thanked Erdogan on Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ukrainian President said. 

In the grain deal over the weekend Russia had suspended its participation, against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea citing an alleged drone attack.

Erdogan said on Wednesday shipments would resume, prioritizing those to African nations, including Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. With Turkey and the U.N. in July since Moscow and Kyiv made separate agreements, that’s in line with Russia’s concerns that much of the exported grain had ended up in richer nations.

Under the grain deal went to lower- or lower-middle-income countries 23% of the cargo exported from Ukraine, which also received 49% of all wheat shipments, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday.

A spokesman Guterres said “the exports of Russian food and fertilizer remain committed to removing the remaining obstacles” and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed Russia’s announcement. 

A loss of those supplies led to soaring energy costs and helped throw tens of millions into poverty, before the grain deal had pushed up global food prices. Ukraine and Russia are major global exporters of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to developing countries. 

About 15% from their peak in March the July agreement brought down global food prices, according to the U.N. Wheat futures prices erased increases seen Monday, dropping more than 6% in Chicago, after the announcement Wednesday that Russia would rejoin the deal.

After a wave of Russian drone and artillery strikes had targeted energy infrastructure, meanwhile, electricity had been fully restored in Kyiv, the local power-grid operator said. 

Reportedly about 300,000 households got their power back, but to reduce strain on the system local authorities called for continued controlled blackouts.

“One of the world’s harshest winters in extremely difficult circumstances” Ukrainians are about to face, the U.N. refugee official, Grandi, noted. 

In the ocean of needs those include the continuing destruction of civilian infrastructure, which is “quickly making the humanitarian response look like a drop”, he said. 

The 14 million Ukrainian refugees had increased the overall number of displaced people worldwide, to more than 103 million, Grandi said.

In the southern cities of Nikopol and Chervonohryhorivka power outages also were reported after “a large-scale drone attack”, Dnipropetrovsk Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. From the huge Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant the two cities lie across the Dnieper River.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog warned it could cause a radiation emergency at and around the plant for months for shelling  Russia and Ukraine have traded blame. 

After shelling forced it to rely on generators to cool spent nuclear fuel, in a development easing some fears, the plant has been reconnected to the country’s power grid, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom, said.

The plant is held by Russian forces, but Ukrainian staff continue to run it. Energoatom has called for the creation of a demilitarized zone around it.

The plant’s spent nuclear-fuel storage facility and began unspecified construction there the company also said that Russian soldiers have cordoned off. “They don’t let anyone in, they don’t report anything”, the company said.

According to Zelenskyy’s office between Tuesday and Wednesday Russian shelling continued in southern and eastern Ukraine, causing at least four civilian deaths.

“The epicenter of the fighting” was around the city of Bakhmut” neighboring Soledar and the wider Donetsk region, Hanna Malya Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister told Ukrainian TV. Around Bakhmut Ukrainian defenders were facing a “very difficult” task, she said.

She said “But the main thing is that Ukraine will not give up a single inch of land”.

Across the wide Dnieper River they were temporarily halting traffic, as Kyiv’s forces edged closer to the region’s capital citing “increased military danger”, the city of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, Russian-installed authorities in the occupied Kherson region announced.

From crossing back into Ukrainian-held territory the move would also prevent civilians.

In anticipation of the Ukrainian counterattack they are relocating tens of thousands of civilians further into Russian-held territory, the Moscow-backed authorities have said.

Early in the war the province was overrun by Russian forces, and for a major battle over it both sides have been girding.

Belarus and Russia began preparations on Wednesday for large-scale joint military exercises in another development. Either the dates for the exercises, dubbed Union Shield-2023, or the number of troops that would take part Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin didn’t specify.

Source:- https://sharenewzlive.com/on-wartime-russia-rejoins-key-deal-ukrainian-grain-exports/