During the local war, the Ukrainians withdraw from the symbolic city Donbass where you fought for several weeks, Severodonetsk. However, the Russians are in trouble, advancing slowly and at the cost of loss of men and resources. A crack is opening on the diplomatic front. There is an agreement to free the export of wheat from Ukraine. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said: “A general consensus has been reached on the creation of a center in Istanbul for the safe and uninterrupted operation and management of this transport activity by Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers together than at the UN. There could be positive developments in the next few days.” Ankara is playing an intermediary role to allow cargo ships carrying Ukrainian wheat to leave Black Sea ports, the absence of which poses a risk of a food emergency. Akar says: “The parties have real faith in our country, we try to use it as carefully as possible”.
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Why is it important that grain does not remain in silos in Ukraine? The Cai (Agrarian Consortiums of Italy) states: “Europe will lose about 3 million tons of wheat due to the drought and the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine”. Coldiretti: “The agreement on the release of ports allows Ukraine to export 95 percent of its grain by sea again, emptying the warehouses, which are estimated to hold over 20 million tons of grain destined to both countries the rich as well as the rich to provide for the poorest where riots and famines threaten». Putin rejects the allegations: “The West is artificially inflating the hysteria about wheat exports, even though the harvest in the Russian Federation will be good.” The scenario remains complex: the Russians continue to raise their voices to direct threatening phrases towards the West. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov likens the EU and NATO to a propaganda stunt to Hitler, saying they are “putting together a coalition for a war against Russia as it stands when World War II broke out”. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, speaks of “the geopolitical hoarding of the EU against Moscow”. And the pro-Putin parliamentarian Andrei Gurulev he went so far as to say that in the event of a conflict “London will be the first city to be bombed”.
FIGHTS
And then there’s the War on the field. Forms of guerrilla warfare against the Russians are being used in the occupied parts of Ukraine. In Kherson, a Moscow official was killed with a bomb placed under a car. The Ukrainians accuse the Russians of also using phosphorus weapons in bombing raids. In the Donbass, the war is becoming increasingly violent and Ukrainians have had to make a painful decision and withdraw from Severodonetsk. “Staying in positions that have been bombed relentlessly for months makes no sense. The city was almost reduced to rubble. The loss of Severodonetsk is a loss for Ukraine in the sense that any land captured by Russian forces is a loss, but Severodonetsk will not be a decisive battle. Russian forces have made significant progress in the Severodonetsk-Lysyhansk region in recent days and Ukrainian troops continue to suffer heavy casualties, but Ukrainians have basically achieved their goal by slowing down and demoting Russian forces,” explains one analysis by ISW (the American Study Center Institute for the Study of War).