- Russia’s defence ministry says all targets were hit in overnight air attacks on Ukraine’s Odesa and Mykolaiv ports, describing them as a “mass revenge strike” to avenge an assault on the Crimea bridge.
- Ukrainian officials say its forces downed 32 drones and six missiles during the wave of attacks.
- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin says the Crimean bridge, which was targeted on Monday, would be completely repaired by November 1.
- Washington says it will work with other countries to ensure the movement of grain out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, after Russia pulled out of the wartime deal.
Attacking ports is equal to targeting worlds most needy: Germany
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says every missile fired by Russia at the port of Odesa was equal to firing a missile at starving people.
The remark comes as Moscow faces backlash for attacking Ukrainian ports a day after pulling out of the Black Sea grain deal.
Earlier, Russia described its wave of missile and drone attacks on Odesa as revenge for Monday’s attack on the Crimean Bridge.
EU-Latin America summit conflicted over Ukraine war
About 50 leaders from the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) struggled to agree on a joint statement on the war in Ukraine during a summit aimed at revitalising relations in Brussels.
According to officials familiar with the negotiations, countries with close political and economic ties to Russia, such as Cuba and Nicaragua, resisted attempts to include language condemning Russia.
In a draft text seen by Reuters, a paragraph that condemned “the ongoing war against Ukraine” and referred to UN resolutions that “deplore in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation” had been marked through.
The document instead referred to the “specific national positions” of the countries represented at the summit.
Five people injured in Russia’s Shamino: Governor
The governor of the Belgorod region says five people were injured in Ukrainian shelling on the outskirts of the village of Shamino.
“According to preliminary data, five people were injured – civilians. The ambulance crews delivered all the victims to the city hospital No. 2,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
“One man has a shrapnel wound to the chest, doctors assess his condition as moderate … four had minor injuries. All necessary medical assistance is provided,” he said.
Situation in the east ‘difficult but under control’: Ukraine
The commander of Ukrainian ground forces says the situation in the east is “difficult but under control”.
“The enemy is transferring reserves to the Bakhmut direction, trying to stop our advance,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram.
“At the same time, the enemy concentrated its main forces in the Kupyansk direction, where Ukrainian soldiers are holding the defence,” he added.
Without Russian security guarantee, shipping grain is risky: Kremlin
Following suggestions that Turkey could protect Ukrainian grain ships, the Kremlin has said shipping grain without security guarantees from Russia would be risky as Ukraine uses waters for military activities.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a briefing that Moscow rejected the US criticism of its withdrawal from the deal and that Russia would continue supplying grain to needy countries.
Russia is using grain as ammunition, says Polish minister
Poland’s Agriculture Minister Robert Telus has told Reuters that Russia is using grain as ammunition.
His comments came a day after Russia withdrew from the Turkey and UN-brokered Black Sea grain deal that allowed Ukrainian ships to export grain via Black Sea ports to the rest of the world.
Telus urged the EU to help improve grain logistics as more Ukraine grain will start flowing through borders after the harvest.
Russia says it hits Ukrainian targets overnight in ‘mass revenge strike’
Russia’s defence ministry says it carried out overnight attacks on two Ukrainian port cities in what it called “a mass revenge strike”, a day after an attack on the Crimean Bridge, which it blamed on Kyiv.
The ministry said in a statement it struck Odesa and Mykolayiv and hit all targets.
Watch: Putin calls Crimea bridge strike a ‘terrorist attack’
Ukraine says it downed 32 drones and 6 missiles
Ukraine’s air force has said it downed 31 out of 36 Shahed kamikaze drones, all six Kalibr cruise missiles and one reconnaissance drone launched by Russia overnight.
“Six Calibers, 31 Shahed-136/131 attack drone and one reconnaissance BPLA were destroyed,” it said in a statement.
“Caliber winged missiles and the vast majority of kamikaze drones were destroyed in the south – in Odessa and Mykolaiv regions. The rest of the impact BPLA was affected in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” it added.
Zelenskyy discusses restoring Black Sea supply routes with UN chief
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he spoke to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about restoring food supply via the Black Sea routes a day after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal.
“This is another Russian attempt to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market. The terrorist state has endangered the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports,” he said in a tweet.
“The most critical situation is in such countries of Africa and Asia as Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen. The Black Sea Grain Initiative must be preserved,” he added.
Road traffic partially restored on Crimean Bridge
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin says road traffic has partially resumed on the Crimean Bridge, which came under attack on Monday.
“Motor transport on the Crimean Bridge has been restored in reverse mode on the most outer right lane,” Khusnullin said on his Telegram channel.
However, ferry operations were suspended early on Tuesday, due to bad weather, Russian agencies reported, citing the Moscow-backed emergency situations ministry of Crimea.
German army orders ammo in $1.35bn Rheinmetall deal
The German military has ordered several hundred thousand artillery shells in a deal with defence company Rheinmetall as it works to replenish stocks dented by the war in Ukraine.
Rheinmetall said it had been awarded a new framework contract for the supply of 155mm artillery ammunition, representing a potential order volume of about 1.2 billion euros ($1.35bn).
Germany’s armed forces also expanded an existing framework agreement for DM121 ammunition, more than doubling the contract from 109 million euros ($122m) to 246 million euros ($276m), the company said.
Russia says it repels drone attack near Crimea
Russia’s Ministry of Defence says its forces have repelled another major drone attack near Crimea, a day after Moscow said a waterborne attack damaged a key bridge there and killed two people.
A total of 28 Ukrainian missiles were shot down or diverted from their planned flight path overnight, the ministry said.
UK defence ministry says warring sides achieved ‘marginal advances’
Here are a few key takeaways from the British Ministry of Defence’s latest update on the situation in Ukraine:
- Both sides have achieved “marginal advances in different areas”.
- In the northeast, Russian forces are “likely fragile”, but still holding around Bakhmut.
- “Ukraine continues to attack” in the south, “but is unlikely to have yet broken into Russia’s primary defensive lines”.
As Russia exits grain deal, which countries will be affected?
Russia has said it will not extend an international deal to allow the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea ports.
The accord has been credited with helping curb food prices around the world in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The two countries are two of the world’s largest agricultural producers.
Almost 33 million metric tonnes of grain were exported since the Black Sea Grain Initiative was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey a year ago.
So, what is the Black Sea deal? How much grain has been transported? Where have exports gone? Where is grain needed the most?
Find out more here.
UN chief laments Russia’s withdrawal from Black Sea grain deal
Russia blackmailing world with food access, says Zelenskky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says no one has the right to destroy the food security of any nation, and the world has an opportunity to show Russia that it does not allow blackmail.
Describing the need to be protected from “Russian madness” following Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal on Monday, Zelenskyy said the export of grain from Ukraine’s seaports should continue – with or without Russia’s participation.
Read the full story here.
Russia says it foiled Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea
Russian air defences and electronic countermeasure systems downed 28 Ukrainian drones over Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Russian defence ministry.
The drone attacks caused no casualties or damages, the ministry said.
Russia launches drones, missiles on Ukraine’s south and east
Russia launched overnight air attacks on Ukraine’s south and east using drones and possibly ballistic missiles, Ukrainian officials say.
The southern port of Odesa and the Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were under threat of Russian drone attacks, officials said.
They added that Russia may be using ballistic weaponry to attack the regions of Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad.
Air raid alerts blared in many Ukrainian regions for hours, before being called off at about 4:30am (01:30 GMT).
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
