Key events
Show only key events
Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
More details about ships that have left Ukrainian ports. They include Glory, with a cargo of 66,000 tons of corn bound for Istanbul, and Riva Wind, loaded with 44,000 tons of corn, bound for Turkey’s Iskenderun, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.
He said the other two ships that had left Ukraine were the Star Helena, with a cargo of 45,000 tonnes of food bound for China, and the Mustafa Necati, carrying 6,000 tonnes of sunflower oil and bound for Italy, Reuters reports.
The JCC also said it was close to finalizing dispatch procedures to regularize operations to support the implementation of the grains agreement. The proceedings were expected to be released early this week, he said. The first four ships left Ukraine last week under the deal. The JCC said it has also authorized the movement, pending inspection, of the Osprey S to Chornomorsk. This vessel is currently anchored northwest of Istanbul and was due to be inspected on Sunday. On Saturday, the JCC completed its inspection of the Navistar, which was cleared to sail, and its joint inspection teams were due to continue Sunday morning inspections of the remaining two. ships that left Ukrainian ports on Friday.
The first ship to leave a Ukrainian port under the agreement will not arrive in Lebanon on Sunday as planned, the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon said. The Razoni left Odesa last Monday with 26,527 tons of corn. The embassy told Reuters the ship was “having a delay” and “wasn’t arriving today,” with no details on a new arrival date or the cause of the delay. Shipping data on MarineTraffic.com showed the Razoni off the Turkish coast on Sunday morning.
An official of the Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine’s Kherson region has died after an assassination attempt, according to Moscow-backed local authorities.
Vitaly Gura, the deputy head of the Kakhovka district, “died from his injuries,” local official Katerina Gubareva said on Telegram, AFP reports.
Gura was attacked at home on Saturday morning and was seriously wounded by bullets, a source in the Russian-backed administration told the TASS news agency.
Kakhovka is located about 80 kilometers (50 mi) east of the city of Kherson.
Several assassination attempts have been reported against officials in the Ukrainian regions seized by Russia since the start of its military operation in Ukraine in February.
Four more ships carrying food leave Black Sea ports
Four ships carrying Ukrainian food products left Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday as part of a deal to unblock the country’s seaborne exports, Ukrainian and Turkish officials said.
The four bulk carriers were carrying more than 160,000 tons of corn and other food products, Reuters reports.
The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, staffed by Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN personnel.
The United Nations and Turkey negotiated the deal last month after UN warnings of possible famine outbreaks in parts of the world due to the halt in grain shipments from Ukraine, which had squeezed the supplies and had driven up prices.
Before the invasion, Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of world wheat exports.
The JCC has authorized the departure of a total of five new ships through the Black Sea corridor: four departing from Chornomorsk and Odesa carrying 161,084 metric tons of food products, and one inbound. The first four ships left Ukraine last week under the deal
Updated at 09.22 BST
Russian bombing was reported in dozens of cities
The Ukrainian military said Russian shelling was reported in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern front lines.
Reuters reports that Ukraine’s military said late Saturday that Russian forces had shelled dozens of front-line towns and were attempting to attack six different areas of the Donetsk region, all of which failed to gain any territory and were stopped by Ukrainian forces. Reuters was unable to verify either side’s claims about developments on the battlefield.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that over the past week his forces had “achieved powerful results” in destroying Russia’s logistics supplies and rear bases.
He said in an evening address:
“Each attack on the enemy’s munitions depots, their command posts and Russian equipment stockpiles saves the lives of all of us, the lives of the Ukrainian military and civilians.
Reuters also reports:
- Russia’s war in Ukraine is about to enter a new phase, with most of the fighting shifting to a nearly 350-km (217-mile) front that stretches southwest from near Zaporizhzhia to in Kherson, British military intelligence said.
- North Macedonia has agreed to supply tanks and aircraft to Ukraine to help defend Moscow’s ongoing invasion, Mykhailo Podolyak said.
- The next arms package to Ukraine from the United States was expected to be worth $1 billion and include ammunition for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Updated at 09.23 BST
More information about the Zaporizhzhia Power Plant
Reuters reports:
- Shells struck a high-voltage power line at the plant, prompting operators to shut down a reactor despite no radioactive leak being detected. The plant was captured by Russian forces in early March, but is still run by its Ukrainian technicians.
- Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom blamed Russia for the damage to the power plant.
- Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukrainian forces of bombing the plant, saying a radiation leak had only been avoided by luck.
- The US has accused Russia of using it as a “nuclear shield”, while the Russian Defense Ministry said damage to the plant had only been prevented by the “skillful, competent and effective actions” of their units.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Saturday:
I am extremely concerned about yesterday’s bombing of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which highlights the very real risk of a nuclear disaster.”
The two sides have accused each other of engaging in “nuclear terrorism.”
Read more here:
The IAEA expresses its concern about the bombing of nuclear power plants
Caroline Davies
Good morning and welcome to the blog, where we start with a summary of the latest news.
- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed his great concern about the bombing of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday it had opened criminal proceedings against what it said was a rocket and artillery shelling by the Russian military at the Zaporizhzhia power plant.
- The Ukrainian military said Russian shelling was reported in dozens of towns along the eastern and southern front lines.
- The head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office has left the human rights body in disagreement with him after the group accused Ukraine’s armed forces of endangering civilians by basing troops in residential areas during the Russian invasion.
- A foreign-flagged ship arrived in Ukraine on Saturday for the first time since the war began and will be loaded with grain, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister said.
My name is Caroline Davies and I’ll be walking you through some other news throughout the day. You can contact caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Updated at 09.23 BST