Russian kamikaze drones attack the city, a building burns down. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Zelensky is visiting the UN General Assembly in the USA.
Selenksy also visits wounded Ukrainian soldiers in the United States Photo: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Kamikaze drones attack Lviv
The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was the target of a Russian airstrike on Tuesday morning. The impact of a kamikaze drone sparked a fire at a city warehouse, according to local authorities injured two people – one of them difficult. Lviv is just under 80 kilometers east of the border with NATO and EU member Poland.
Also other parts of the Ukraine reported Russian attacks – According to the military administration, ten Iranian-designed “Shahed-136/131” drones were shot down at dawn over the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv alone. In the southern city of Krivyi Rih, a drone hit a multi-story residential building, starting a fire, according to authorities. Another drone was shot down. (dpa)
🐾 Europe is buying more Russian LNG
The liquid gas replaces lost pipeline deliveries. Loopholes are also opening up in the EU embargo against Russian oil, they write taz authors Eric Bonse and Bernward Janzing. (taz)
There seems to be trust between Russia and China
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow and Beijing agree on their stance towards the USA and a solution to the conflict in Ukraine. “The similarity of the positions of the two parties regarding the actions of the United States on the international stage, including those of an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese nature, has been noted,” the ministry said after talks between the foreign ministers of Russia and China on Monday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wand Yi began a four-day visit to Moscow on Monday with a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. It was the latest in a series of government-level contacts between the two strategic allies. (afp)
Ukrainian farmers are left with the sunflower harvest
Tons of them trickle down from the back of the truck: even more sunflower seeds, which pile up in Oleksandr Ryjabinin’s warehouse and spread their nutty aroma there. It’s harvest time in Ukraine and farmer Ryjabinin has already collected half of this year’s harvest from the fields. But with repeated Russian attacks on the country’s ports and the blockade of the Black Sea routes, exporting their crops is becoming an increasingly daunting problem for Ukrainian farmers.
“At the moment we haven’t sold a single kilo of sunflower seeds,” 52-year-old Ryjabinin tells AFP. Sunflower seeds and the oil obtained from them are one of the country’s most important export goods. In the 2020/2021 marketing year, according to figures from the US Department of Agriculture, Ukraine accounted for almost a third of total global sunflower oil production at 31 percent. But the Russian war of aggression has massively disrupted exports.
“People are afraid to transport oil,” said Ryjabinin, who runs a farm with fields in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions in the southeast of the country. “Nobody wants to risk that,” he says, and reports how fear is spreading on the transport ships that they will be hit by Russian missiles on the way to the Ukrainian ports.
At the same time, given the delicate situation, there are farmers who bring their harvest to the market at significantly lower value. That’s why it makes no sense for him to sell now, he says. “We’re waiting for prices to go up, for a grain corridor to open up.” (afp)
Ukraine sues over grain import restrictions
In the dispute over grain import restrictions, Ukraine has filed a lawsuit against its neighboring states Poland, Slovakia and Hungary at the World Trade Organization (WTO), as announced. It is “crucially important” for Kiev to establish that individual EU member states cannot ban the import of Ukrainian goods, said Ukrainian Trade Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Monday.
Shortly afterwards, the government in Warsaw said it was unimpressed by the lawsuit. “We are sticking to our position,” government spokesman Piotr Müller told the Polsat News television station. This is “fair” and in accordance with EU law and international law.
Grain imports are a particularly sensitive issue amid the election campaign in Poland. The right-wing nationalist one Ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) enjoys strong support in agricultural regions. The dispute is straining relations between Kiev and Warsaw, which is one of Ukraine’s most important allies against Russia’s war of aggression. (afp)
UN Security Council: Zelensky calls for Russia to be excluded
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj criticizes the United Nations for the fact that Russia continues to be in power despite the war of aggression against his country. There is “still – it’s a shame, but still – a place for Russian terrorists in the international community,” he said on Monday (local time) in the run-up to the UN General Assembly in New York. (ap)
