The seizure of the Soviet-era coal-fired power plant at Vuhlehirsk in eastern Ukraine would be Moscow’s first strategic gain in more than three weeks in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarize and “de-nitroze” its neighbor. Rising energy prices and a global wheat shortage threatening millions in poorer countries are among the far-reaching effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia cut gas flows to Europe on Wednesday in an energy standoff with the European Union. It has blocked grain exports from Ukraine since it invaded on February 24, but on Friday agreed to allow deliveries through the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus strait and to world markets.
Mines and dangers to seamen
However, shipping companies are in no rush to export millions of tons of trapped grain from Ukraine, despite an agreement to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea. Explosive mines are drifting in the waters and ship owners are assessing the risks. Also, many involved in grain shipping still have questions about how the deal will play out. This photo is from video taken by a crew member of the Turkish-flagged cargo ship Kaptan Cevdet in Odesa, Ukraine, on Saturday. It shows smoke from a Russian strike in the distance. The crew of the Kaptan Cevdet have been stranded in port for five months but hope to return home after a UN-brokered deal with Russia to allow grain shipments from Ukraine to resume. (Burak Kinayer/Reuters) The complexities of the deal have prompted a slow, cautious return to grain shipping, and the deal is only good for 120 days — time started ticking last week. The goal in the next four months is to receive about 18 million tons of grain from three Ukrainian seaports. This provides time for about four to five large bulk carriers per day to transport grain to the Black Sea and world markets. WATCHES | Major damage from a Russian missile strike near Odessa:
Extensive damage from a Russian missile attack near Odessa, Ukraine
The Ukrainian government released video on Tuesday that it says shows extensive damage from a Russian missile that hit Zatoka, a key coastal town south of Odesa. Timing also provides enough time for things to go wrong. Hours after Friday’s signing, Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian port of Odessa — one of those included in the deal. Another key element of the deal offers assurances that shipping and insurers carrying Russian grain and fertilizer will not be caught in the wider net of Western sanctions. But the deal brokered by Turkey and the UN belies the reality of how difficult and dangerous it will be to implement the pact. WATCHES | Risks remain amid deal to resume Ukrainian grain exports:
Ukraine will continue grain exports despite Moscow’s attack on Odessa port
Ukraine is set to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports this week following a UN-brokered deal with Russia last Friday. This is despite the fact that two Russian missiles hit the port of Odessa less than 24 hours after the agreement was finalized for the safe passage of grain shipments. “We have to work very hard now to understand the details of how it will work in practice,” said Guy Platten, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping, which says it represents national shipowners’ associations, representing about 80 per cent of the world’s merchant fleet. . “Can we make sure and guarantee the safety of the crews? What will happen to the mines and minefields as well? So much uncertainty and unknowns at the moment,” he said. The agreement stipulates that Russia and Ukraine will provide “maximum guarantees” for ships venturing through the Black Sea to the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny. “The primary risk we face will obviously be mines,” said Munro Anderson, chief intelligence officer and founding partner of Dryad. The maritime security consultancy is working with insurers and brokers to assess the risks ships could face en route as sea mines laid by Ukraine to deter Russia drift away. A combine loads a grain truck during wheat harvest in the Russian-controlled village of Muzykivka in Ukraine’s Kherson region on Tuesday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) Ship owners, charterers and insurance companies are scrambling to understand how the deal will play out in real time. “I think he will come [down] in the position of marine insurers providing war risk and how much they will add surcharges for ships going into that area,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, shipping and commodities analyst at Lloyd’s List, a global shipping news publication. . Bockmann said vessels carrying this type of cargo typically have 20 to 25 sailors. “You cannot risk these lives without something concrete and agreed to by shipowners and their charterers to move grain,” he said.
Stop strategic gains
Russian and Russian-backed forces have been struggling to make substantial progress on the ground since seizing the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk in early July. A house in Bakhmut, Ukraine, appears to be burning Wednesday after it was hit by a shell. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images) They have been repeatedly pushed back by fierce Ukrainian resistance to what Kyiv and the West see as an imperialist Russian land grab from a pro-Western neighbor. Unverified footage posted on social media appeared to show fighters from Russia and the private military company Wagner posing in front of the Vuhlehirsk power plant, which some Russian state media – citing Russian-backed officials – said they stormed . Reuters could not immediately verify the video or whether the factory had come under Russian control. The same unverified video showed that the working parts of the Soviet-era power plant, perched on the shore of a huge reservoir, appeared to be undamaged. Ukraine did not confirm the seizure of the power plant and said only that “hostile operations” were underway in two nearby areas. He said on Monday that “enemy units” had made some gains around the plant.
Rockets hit the strategic bridge in Kherson
Meanwhile, Russian forces suffered a setback in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region after Ukrainian forces hit a major bridge over the Dnipro River with what a Russian-appointed local administrator said were high-mobility artillery missile systems (HIMARS) supplied by the USA. Antonivskyi Bridge is the only city in Kherson that spans across the river, and Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the city’s Russian administration, told Russia’s RIA news agency that it had been closed to traffic after the missile attack. He said Russia was ready to compensate for its removal with bridges and ferries. Ukraine has spoken of launching a major counteroffensive in the south of the country to try to retake cities such as Kherson. The bridge’s uselessness for Russian forces is seen by Western military analysts as something that would make it much more difficult for Moscow’s forces to operate smooth supply lines and defend the land they have seized.
