The grain export ship successfully leaves the southern port of Odesa
Ukraine exported more than 26,000 tonnes of corn after the United Nations and Turkey brokered a deal in an effort to stabilize world food prices.
Claire Hardwick, USA TODAY
The head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine chapter resigned on Friday after the human rights organization published a report claiming that Ukrainian forces are putting civilians at risk by basing themselves in populated areas.
In a Facebook post on Friday night, Oksana Pokalchuk accused Amnesty International of failing to recognize the realities of the war in Ukraine and ignoring the advice of staff members, who urged the group to revise its report.
“It is painful to admit, but I and the leadership of Amnesty International have shared values,” Pokalchuk wrote. “I believe that any work done for the good of society must take into account the local context and think about the consequences.”
The report, which drew the ire of top Ukrainian officials and Western scholars of international and military law, alleged that Ukrainian forces violated international humanitarian law by setting up bases and operating weapons systems in schools, hospitals and other populated areas.
“We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when operating in populated areas,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said in the report. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian army from respecting international humanitarian law.”
Pokalchuk claimed that because Ukraine’s defense ministry was not given enough time to respond to the findings, the report became a “Russian propaganda tool.” Russian forces have defended the attacks on civilian areas by suggesting that Ukrainian fighters set up firing positions at the targeted locations.
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►The Ukrainian military fortified its positions around the eastern city of Sloviansk, expecting another Russian attempt to seize the strategic point in the fiercely contested Donetsk region.
►The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment Friday that Russian forces transferred personnel and equipment from the Donbas region to southern Ukraine to push back a Ukrainian counter-offensive around the occupied port city of Kherson.
Russia begins assault on two cities in eastern Ukraine
Russian forces began an assault on Bakhmut and Avdiivka, two towns in eastern Donetsk region, on Saturday and continued rocket attacks and shelling of other Ukrainian towns, including one near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, they said the military and local officials of Ukraine.
Russian shelling killed five civilians and wounded 14 others in the Donetsk region, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram on Saturday. The governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said three civilians were injured after Russian rockets fell on a residential neighborhood in Nikopol.
– The Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of attacking a power plant
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Friday for the bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s largest of its kind.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom said in a statement on Friday that Russian forces fired on the plant and “created a humanitarian disaster in the city”. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also blamed Russia in his late-night speech on Friday, suggesting the attack should be grounds for increased sanctions on the country.
“This is the largest nuclear power plant on our continent. And any bombing of this facility is an open and brazen crime, an act of terror,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement that the attack was the work of Ukraine.
“Fortunately, the Ukrainian shells did not hit the oil and fuel facility and the nearby oxygen plant, thus preventing a larger fire and possible radiation accident,” a ministry statement said, according to Reuters.
NATO: Senate ratifies Finland, Sweden’s NATO membership amid Russian invasion of Ukraine
The war is approaching a “new phase”, says the UK Ministry of Defence
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that Russia’s war in Ukraine is approaching a “new phase” as heavy fighting moves along the Dnieper River between Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
The ministry said Russian forces moved to the southwest, away from the Donbas region, “almost certainly” in anticipation of a counteroffensive or possible assault from Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have targeted bridges, ammunition depots and rail links with “increasing frequency” in the southern regions of Ukraine in an attempt to disrupt Russian logistical supplies, the ministry said.
Grain shipments from Ukraine offer hope, fix food crisis
A ship carrying maize to the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon would not normally cause a stir, but this one came from the Black Sea port of Odesa in Ukraine.
The Razoni, loaded with more than 26,000 tons of corn for chicken feed, emerged from the brink of war that has threatened food supplies in Lebanon, which has the highest rate of food inflation of the world – an astonishing 122% – and it depends on the blacks. Maritime region for almost all its wheat.
The fighting has trapped 20 million tons of grain in Ukraine, and the departure of the Razoni on Monday was an important first step in extracting those food supplies and bringing them to farms and bakeries to feed millions of impoverished people who go hungry in Africa, the Middle East. and parts of Asia.
“Actually seeing shipment movement is a big deal,” said Jonathan Haines, senior analyst at data and analytics firm Gro Intelligence. “This 26,000 tonnes on the scale of the 20 million tonnes that are locked up is nothing, absolutely nothing … but if we start to see it, every shipment that goes in will build confidence.”
Contributor: The Associated Press