Ukraine live briefing: End of grain deal sparks concern over food prices; Putin vows response to Crimean Bridge attack
Ukraine live briefing: End of grain deal sparks concern over food prices; Putin vows response to Crimean Bridge attack A cargo ship transports grain in the Black Sea, near the entrance of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul. Russia on Monday pulled out of an initiative that had allowed Ukraine to export its grain by sea. (Sercan Ozkurnazli/AP)
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Russia said it would resume its blockade on Ukrainian grain, terminating the U.N.-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative that had helped sustain critical food supplies and temper rising food prices around the world. “Corn, soybean and wheat all shot up today as a result of this decision,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said about prices on Monday. “We’re seeing the impact right now.”
After Ukraine’s pre-dawn attack on a crucial bridge connecting mainland Russia and Crimea, which killed two people, a Kremlin official wrote early Tuesday on Telegram that part of the transit way had been reopened and posted videos of cars passing over it. Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed that Russia would respond to the incident.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
Russia carried out a wave of overnight attacks across southern and eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday. According to the Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday. According to the Ukrainian Air Force , Russia launched six Kalibr cruise missiles and 36 Shahed drones, with some targeting the Odessa and Mykolaiv regions. Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa military administration, said on Telegram that an elderly man was injured. Meanwhile, officials in Mykolaiv extinguished a fire that broke out after an industrial facility in the southern city was hit, its Mayor Alexander Senkevich wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine is “not afraid” to continue shipping grain from its ports, despite Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea initiative , President Volodymyr Zelensky said while , President Volodymyr Zelensky saidwhile speaking to African media . “No one has the right to destroy the food security of any nation,” Zelensky added Monday in his nightly address.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative helped reduce food prices by more than 23 percent since March 2022 and ensured the safe passage of 32 million metric tons of foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and ensured the safe passage of 32 million metric tons of foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Monday . Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, accused Russia of deciding to “hold humanity hostage” in a statement on Monday.
“Of course there will be a response from Russia” to the attack on the Crimean Bridge, Putin said during a televised emergency meeting. According to Russian officials, Monday’s explosion killed a Russian couple and injured a girl. It marks the second time the strategically important bridge has been attacked during the conflict.
Kyiv’s navy and special forces carried out the nighttime drone boat attack on the Crimean Bridge, a Ukrainian official a Ukrainian official told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. Also known as the Kerch Bridge, it is a 12-mile, $3.7 billion infrastructure project. The bridge is the longest in Europe and a marquee infrastructure project for Putin.
Battleground updates
Russia and Ukraine have each achieved marginal advances in different areas over the past week , the British Defense Ministry said. According to Tuesday’s , the British Defense Ministry said. According to Tuesday’s daily assessment , Ukraine has continued to “resource significant effort” around Bakhmut, while Russian forces are attempting to push west near the eastern city of Kreminna. In the south, Ukraine has carried on its attack on at least two axes, “but is unlikely to have yet broken into Russia’s primary defensive lines,” British officials said.
Russia has positioned more than 100,000 troops and more than 900 tanks near Kupyansk in Ukraine’s northeast, Ukrainian media Ukrainian media reported . The Post could not independently verify this claim. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram on Monday that Moscow’s forces have been “actively advancing” since the end of last week in the Kupyansk area. Ukraine is putting up “a strong resistance,” she said, but fighting remains intense.
Global impact
The Ukrainian Defense Contact Group meets again Tuesday and will focus on Ukraine’s near-term air defense and ammunition needs, as well as “sustainment for Ukraine over the long term,” the U.S. Defense Department and will focus on Ukraine’s near-term air defense and ammunition needs, as well as “sustainment for Ukraine over the long term,” the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement . The group, which includes 50 countries, coordinates military support for Ukraine at monthly meetings.
President Biden and a papal envoy will discuss the repatriation of Ukrainian children “forcibly deported by Russian officials” this week in Washington, the White House this week in Washington, the White House said . Kyiv estimates that thousands of children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory. In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and another top Russian official for their roles in the “ unlawful deportation ” of Ukrainian children.
From our correspondents
Ukraine aims to sap Russia’s defenses, as U.S. urges a decisive breakthrough: Ukraine is making limited advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces but has yet to employ the kind of larger-scale operations that American officials believe could enable a breakthrough, officials and analysts say. Now, questions are deepening among some of Ukraine’s chief backers about whether Kyiv can move fast enough to match a finite supply of munitions and arms, Missy Ryan, Isabelle Khurshudyan and Michael Birnbaum report.
Five weeks into the highly anticipated operation, Ukrainian forces are attempting to weaken Russian defenses by firing fusillades of artillery and missiles and sending small teams of sappers into the sprawling minefields that constitute their adversary’s outermost ring of defense. But the pace of progress, in three main areas along a vast 600-mile front line, has generated concerns in the West that Zelensky’s government may not deliver as powerful a blow as it could.
Source: The Washington Post
