Corn is a food product, not a bullet or grenade
A grain-loaded ship that departed from the Ukrainian port of Odessa will be in Istanbul on Tuesday at 12 p.m. GMT, Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday. Loaded with corn, the Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni will arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday, and it will continue on its way to the port of Tripoli following inspections in the Turkish metropolis. The ship is carrying a cargo of 26,527 tonnes of corn.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that ensuring “existing grain and foodstuffs can move to global markets is a humanitarian imperative.” “People on the verge of famine need these agreements to work, in order to survive. Countries on the verge of bankruptcy need these agreements to work, in order to keep their economies alive."
While the “tragic war continues to rage”, said the UN chief, the UN would continue working every day, "to bring relief to the people of Ukraine, and to those suffering the effects of the conflict around the world.”
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Ukraine is the world's fourth largest exporter of corn, and the opportunity of exporting its products is a "colossal success" for ensuring global food security. According to the minister, 16 more ships are waiting for their turn at Odesa port.
Evacuated so as not to come under fire?
More than 50,000 children and 200,000 adults have to leave Ukraine’s Donetsk region during an evacuation. Kyiv’s intentions lie with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk calling for a mass evacuation after President Volodymyr Zelensky did so in his address to the nation.
“Those who are going to evacuate should call the local administrations or write online in chatbots. People who come for evacuation will be picked up and transported to the place of evacuation. It can be a bus or a train,” assured Vereshchuk.
Kiev braces for new challenges
From August 1, all ground public transport in Kyiv will stop during an air raid. The goal is to increase the safety of passengers because the Russian invaders have repeatedly fired at public transport stops, cars, etc.
Passengers will be able to go to the shelter, and after the end of the alarm, they will be able to return to the same bus, minibus, trolleybus, etc.
Will they remember end result or the end justifies the means
Andrii Melnyk, Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador to Berlin, sometimes went too far. But in Melnyk’s view the end always justified the means. “I think I’ve shaken people awake,” he told the Financial Times. “And I’m glad I’ve done that, even though I sometimes had to do it in a somewhat undiplomatic way.”
He defends his shock-jock style. “You have to stir people from their sweet slumber, out of their lethargy — where they just say: ‘Everything’s fine and dandy, so what does this man want from us? Why is he provoking us?’” he said.
In a fusillade of interventions on TV and social media, he pleaded with Germany’s leaders to help his embattled country, needled them over their hesitancy in supplying heavy weapons, and mercilessly berated them for their past naiveté in trusting Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Russia has just two allies – the armed forces and the navy” (Alexander III)
The Office of the President of Ukraine mocked Russia’s claims of dominance in the world ocean. They remembered that Russia is the country that lost 15 ships in the war with Ukraine and is afraid to celebrate the Black Sea Fleet in the occupied Crimea.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President, wrote about this in social networks. “A country that is afraid to hold a parade in the Black Sea announces a course for domination in the world ocean? Since February 24, Ukraine has lost 15 ships, including the monstrous cruiser “Moskva”. Despite the fact that Ukraine actually has no fleet. Maybe it’s better to immediately set a course for the “liberation of Atlantis”?”, Podolyak wrote.
No one wants to stay near terrorists
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called on the world, and specifically the U.S. State Department, to recognize Russia as a terrorist state. He said it would not be just a political gesture but an “effective defense of the free world.”
He said the recognition will cut various political and business ties that Russia has, making it difficult for the state to exist. He said the sooner the recognition is issued, the less evil Russia will be able to inflict.
What is bought can be also sold
According to the National Resistance Centre, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russians are threatening to introduce the ruble as the new local currency, and have achieved a critically low passportization percentage. In the south of Ukraine, Russians are distributing fake receipts that urge Ukrainians to pay for public utilities in rubles. The majority of locals realize that these receipts have no legal grounds, so Russians resort to threats.
In Kherson, occupation authorities held a meeting with heads of housing cooperatives and threatened them with "preventive measures" if the residents won’t pay in rubles for the sake of "Russia’s interests".
Despite the occupiers giving out 10,000 rubles for taking a Russian passport, for now, only roughly 10,000 residents of the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts have taken these passports, which corresponds to around 1% of the adult population.
