The Ukrainian government expects the first shipments to be able to leave Black Sea ports "as early as this week" where they had been stuck since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, amid soaring food prices worldwide.
Again in application of the agreements signed for four months on July 22 in Istanbul, the Joint Coordination Center (CCC) in charge of controlling the transport via the Black Sea of Ukrainian grain was officially inaugurated the same day in this Turkish metropolis.
Another consequence of the Russian offensive, the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany is now only in service, as planned, at around a fifth of its capacity, reinforcing the risks of shortages this winter. in Europe.
- Convoys to transport cereals -
"The ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (Pivdenny, editor's note) have resumed work," the Ukrainian navy announced on Wednesday.
“The exit and entry of ships to seaports will be done by forming a convoy that will accompany the lead ship,” she continued.
kyiv and Moscow agreed in Istanbul, via mediation by Turkey and under the aegis of the UN, to allow the delivery abroad of some 25 million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports.
However, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they do not trust Moscow to ensure the security of convoys and recall the Russian missile fire on Saturday at the port of Odessa.
The Kremlin for its part declared that it did not see any obstacles to the resumption of exports, also hampered by the presence of sea mines laid by Ukrainian forces to guard against a Russian amphibious assault.
Demining will take place only "in the corridor necessary for exports", underlined kyiv.
- A bridge "very damaged" by the Ukrainians -
Spanning the Dnieper in the suburbs of Kherson, the Antonovski bridge, key for supplies, was partially disabled on Wednesday by a Ukrainian attack.
This work "is very damaged" and "the Russians do not have the specialists and the equipment to repair it in the short term", commented the deputy head of the regional council, Yuri Sobolevski, affirming that "the bridge cannot be used to cross heavy military equipment".
“Those who fired on the bridge just made life a little more difficult for the population,” said Kirill Stremoussov, a senior representative of the Russian occupation authorities.
Kherson is located just a few kilometers from the southern front where Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive in order to regain these territories lost in the very first days of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Essential for Ukrainian agriculture, the region is also strategic because it borders the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
In eastern Ukraine, the Donbass mining basin was also the scene of intense fighting.
Two people were killed and five injured in the shelling of a hotel in Bakhmout, the Ukrainian emergency services announced.
AFP journalists present in this city, one of the last in Donbass to remain under Ukrainian control, heard sporadic artillery fire and saw a house hit by a Russian shell.
"I was in the barn and I was going to get out. I heard a whistle. And I don't remember anything. It exploded and I was thrown into the barn" by the blast, told the AFP Roman, 51 years old.
"Today, the time has come to liberate the Russian cities, founded by Russians: kyiv, Cherniguiv, Poltava, Odessa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporijjia, Loutsk", spread over the whole of Ukrainian soil, has for its part claimed Denis Pushilin, the leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region.
- Less Russian gas delivered to Europe -
In the context of the energy showdown between Moscow and the West since the start of the conflict, the arrival of gas from Russia in Germany was on Wednesday some 14.4 gigawatt hours (GWh), against nearly 29 GWh on average these last few days, lamented the German operator Gascade, which manages the network on German territory.
The supply to Germany - particularly dependent on Russian gas - but also to other European countries via this pipe installed at the bottom of the Baltic Sea had already been reduced to 40% of normal in mid-June, before a complete shutdown for an annual maintenance between July 11 and 21.
On Monday, Gazprom said it would further halve its daily deliveries via Nord Stream, citing a maintenance operation on a turbine.
A Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday that the reduction in speed was due to Western sanctions against Russia.
But Europeans accuse Moscow of using gas as an economic and political weapon.
From Benin, where he was visiting, French President Emmanuel Macron for his part accused Russia on Wednesday of being "one of the last imperial colonial powers" because of its "territorial war" waged in Ukraine.
