Governor: Key city in eastern Ukraine falling to Russian forces
A regional governor on Tuesday said Russian troops have won control over most of a city that has been the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said “most of Sievierodonetsk is under the Russian control.” He added in a messaging app statement that Ukrainian forces continued to fight the Russians in fierce street battles and said the city has not yet been surrounded.
Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has been the focus of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. It has come under relentless Russian bombardment.
Mr. Haidai said Tuesday’s Russian air strike hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical factory, releasing toxic fumes.
U.S. supports shipping Russian grain, fertilizer
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Tuesday said the Biden administration supports the shipment of Russian grain and fertilizer to address increasing global food insecurity sparked by the war in Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at U.N. headquarters that there are no U.S. sanctions on Russian shipments of grain and fertilizer, but she said companies are “a little nervous” and have been holding back.
Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said the United States is prepared to give “comfort letters” to grain and fertilizer exporters and insurance companies in an attempt to get badly needed agricultural products out of Russia.
She said the Biden administration is “very supportive” of efforts by U.N. SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres to allow grain exports out of Ukraine by train and the Black Sea, as well as his work to ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets.
A U.N. spokesman said Tuesday Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, visited Moscow Monday and held “constructive discussions” with First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
Poland closer to more money for refugees
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday said the country is on a “good path” to receive new financing from the European Union to support Ukrainian refugees and compensate for weapons Poland gave to Ukraine.
More than 3 million refugees have entered Poland from Ukraine. While some passed through and others returned home, most are still in Poland and receiving government support.
Poland has also been supplying various weapons to Ukraine.
“Albeit slowly, but this (EU) support for Poland is coming … and we are on the good path to receive new means for the help for the refugees as well as linked to the weapons that we have handed to Ukraine,” Mr. Morawiecki said.
Germany, Greece work on weapons deal
Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany is working on a deal with Greece that would see Athens deliver old military equipment to Ukraine and get armored personnel carriers from Germany to fill the gap.
Germany has faced criticism for a perceived reluctance to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, which the government rejects. It points among other things to arrangements for NATO allies to deliver older equipment — particularly of Soviet design — to Kyiv and then have modern material supplied by Germany.
Mr. Scholz noted Tuesday of an arrangement already made with the Czech Republic. He said agreed with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to draw up a similar deal after a European Union summit. He didn’t give details, but said it will be finalized by the countries’ defense ministries and can be implemented quickly.
Mr. Scholz said he spoke to his Polish counterpart about such arrangements.
Official: Blockade threatens Africa
The chair of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, told European Union leaders that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports is paving the way for a “catastrophic scenario” of widespread shortages and price hikes across his continent.
In an address to leaders gathered in Brussels Tuesday for a summit focused on helping Ukraine, Mr. Sall said that a halt to grain and fertilizer exports via the Black Sea is very worrying for a continent hosting 282 million undernourished people. He said the price of fertilizer across Africa has already tripled compared to 2021.
“According to some estimates, cereal yields in Africa will fall by 20 to 50% this year,” Mr. Sall said. “We would like to see everything possible done to free up available grain stocks and ensure transportation and market access.”
Charles Michel, the EU Council president, said that “the EU is sparing no efforts to free Ukraine’s exports over land and exploring alternative sea routes.”
African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to U. N. figures. The African Development Bank is already reporting a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent.
2 more Russian soldiers convicted of war crimes
A court in Ukraine has convicted two Russian soldiers of war crimes for the shelling of civilian buildings and sentenced both to 11 1/2 years in prison. Tuesday’s verdict concluded the country’s second war crimes trial since the Russian invasion started.
Russian servicemen Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov were charged with violating the laws and customs of war over the shelling of civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region on the first day of the Russian attack on Ukraine. They both stood trial in a court in Ukraine’s Poltava region and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Earlier this month, a court in Kyiv sentenced a 21year-old Russian soldier to life in prison for fatally shooting a Ukrainian civilian in the first war crimes trial since Russia invaded.