Live Blog: Russian missile strikes Ukrainian town near nuclear plant

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Russian missile wounds 12 in Ukrainian town near nuclear plant

A Russian missile has hit a residential area of a southern Ukrainian town not far from a nuclear power station, wounding 12 civilians and heightening fears of a nuclear accident, Ukrainian officials say.

Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app that four children were among those wounded in an attack that damaged several private houses and a five-store apartment building in Voznesensk.

The town is about 30 kilometres from the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant (PNPP), the second largest in Ukraine.

UN chief says Russian food and fertiliser must get to market

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that governments and the private sector should cooperate to bring Russian food and fertilisers as well as Ukrainian grain to world markets under a Türkiye-brokered deal last month.

"The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertiliser, which are not subject to sanctions," Guterres told a news conference in Istanbul with Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar.

"It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market. Getting more food and fertiliser out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers."

Russia accuses Ukraine of poisoning some of its soldiers

Russia's defence ministry has accused Ukraine of poisoning some of its servicemen in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia in late July.

An adviser to Ukraine's interior ministry said in response that the alleged poisoning could have been caused by Russian forces eating expired canned meat.

The Russian defence ministry said a number of Russian servicemen had been taken to a military hospital with signs of serious poisoning on July 31. Tests showed a toxic substance, botulinum toxin type B, in their bodies, it said.

UN: US buying big Ukraine grain shipment for hungry regions

The United States is buying about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by conflict, the World Food Program chief has told The Associated Press.

The final destinations for the grain are not confirmed and discussions continue, David Beasley said. 

But the planned shipment, one of several the UN agency that fights hunger is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain that the first WFP-arranged ship from Ukraine is now carrying toward people in the Horn of Africa at risk of starvation.

Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia exporting up to 7,000T of grain per day

The Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia is exporting up to 7,000 tonnes of grain per day, Russian-installed authorities there have said.

Ukraine has accused Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, of stealing grain from territories that Russia's army has seized since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24. Moscow denies this.

The Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia is transporting up to 5,000 tonnes of grain per day by railway and between 1,500 and 2,000 tonnes per day by vehicle, Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-backed administration there said on social media.

Two more grain ships leave Ukraine under Türkiye-brokered deal

Two more ships have left a Ukrainian port under the Istanbul grain export deal, the Turkish National Defence Ministry said.

The ships departed from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, the ministry said on Twitter on Saturday.

It added that two other ships coming from Ukraine and going to Ukraine will also be inspected in the north of Istanbul.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal last month to resume grain exports from the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Yuzhny, Chornomorsk, and Odessa, which were halted due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, now in its sixth month.

Drone shot down in annexed Crimea

A drone was shot down over the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea a local official said, in what was the second attempted attack against the fleet headquarters in less than a month.

"It fell on the roof and caught fire," governor of the port city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvojaev wrote on Telegram, blaming the attempt on Ukrainian forces. He added that there was no major damage or victims.

On July 31 a drone attack in the headquarters courtyard wounded five people and led to the cancellation of celebrations that had been planned for Fleet Day.

For live updates from Friday (August 19), click here.