Live blog: UN working on guarantees for Russia to restore grain deal — Guterres

Thursday, September 7, 2023

The United Nations is "actively engaged" in trying to improve Russia's grain and fertiliser exports in a bid to convince Moscow to again allow the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

"We believe that it's necessary to create a system of mutual guarantee," Guterres told reporters on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations summit in Jakarta.

"Guarantee that the Russian Federation is able, indeed, to overcome difficulties that still exist, even if many have been solved and, at the same time, guarantees that we that we will have the restoration of the Black Sea initiative," he said.

Guterres last week sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "a set of concrete proposals" aimed at reviving the Black Sea grain deal, which Russia quit in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye.

However, Russia's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the UN bid to revive the deal as "a new dose of promises."

It also publicly outlined the proposals made by Guterres in his letter to Lavrov: "reconnecting a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT, creating an insurance platform, unblocking the foreign assets of Russian fertiliser producers and enabling our ships to enter European ports."

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1844 GMT — Ukrainian drone sets building on fire in Russia's Bryansk region -governor

A Ukrainian drone targetted an industrial site in the Bryansk region in southern Russia, the governor said, setting an administrative building on fire but causing no injuries.

Alexander Bogomaz, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said emergency services had been dispatched to the scene in the city of Bryansk.

1529 GMT — Austria summons EU envoy for calling Russian gas payments 'blood money'

Austria's Foreign Ministry said it was summoning the European Commission's envoy to the country for reportedly criticising the slow pace at which Austria is weaning itself of Russian gas and saying it was paying "blood money" for the fuel.

Martin Selmayr, a German EU official who was the powerful chief of staff to the Commission's then-President Jean-Claude Juncker until 2018, made the comments at an event in Vienna on Wednesday evening, according to Austrian news agency APA.

"Oh my god, 55 percent of Austrian gas continues to come from Russia," APA quoted Selmayr as saying.

He expressed astonishment at the lack of protests over the fact that Austria's gas payments were funding Russia's attack against Ukraine, adding: "Blood money is being sent daily to Russia."

According to the latest Austrian government data, for June, 60 percent of Austria's natural gas imports came from Russia, down from around 80 percent before the war but well above the lowest monthly figure since then, 21 percent in September of last year.

1315 GMT — Blinken hails Ukrainians' 'extraordinary resilience'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has praised Ukraine's strength in the face of the Russian attack during a visit to the Chernigiv region, which was occupied by Moscow at the beginning of the war.

Blinken visited a school's basement in Yagidne, where Russian troops kept dozens of villagers including elderly people and children captive.

"This is just one building... (but) this is a story we've seen again and again," Blinken said.

"But we are also seeing something else that's incredibly powerful... the extraordinary resilience of the Ukrainian people."

Blinken said up to a third of Ukraine's territory was now dealing with mines or unexploded ordinance.

"But Ukrainians are coming together to get rid of the ordnance, to get rid of the mines, and to literally recover the land," Blinken said.

The top US official said Washington was "proud" to support Ukraine's efforts to "take on the aggression as they recover as they rebuild."

1303 GMT — Ukraine wants help to pressure Russia to return illegally transferred children

Ukraine's human rights commissioner has called for more international pressure on Moscow to help Kiev bring home thousands of Ukrainian children who Kiev says have been illegally taken to Russia during the war.

Dmytro Lubinets spoke days after several minors were reunited with their parents in western Ukraine on Saturday after a journey home from Russia and Russian-held areas.

"When Russia feels international pressure, that's when we can bring more Ukrainian children back," he said.

1209 GMT — Zelenskyy tells new defence minister to rebuild trust

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tasked new Defence Minister Rustem Umerov with reducing red tape and increasing trust in his ministry after a series of corruption allegations.

Presenting Umerov to senior military and defence officials, a day after parliament approved his appointment, Zelenskyy set priorities for him including developing international cooperation and guiding Ukraine towards NATO membership.

"Most importantly, we need more trust. Trust in the decisions that are being made, trust in the procurement that is carried out, trust in the supplies," Zelenskyy said.

He said that if changes were needed for the good of the soldiers, they should be made immediately.

1040 GMT — Ukraine says it's shipping grain via Croatian ports

Ukraine has started exporting grain via Croatian seaports, aiming to broaden its export routes while its Black Sea ports are blocked, a senior Ukrainian official said.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during a visit to Zagreb in late July that Ukraine and Croatia had agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea for the export of Ukrainian grain.

"Ukrainian grain has already been exported through Croatian ports. We are grateful for this possibility. Although it is a niche trade route, it is already popular," First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a written statement.

"We are ready to develop it by expanding the capabilities of the transport corridor," she said. "We believe that this logistics route will play an important role in bilateral trade between our countries even after the war."

1002 GMT — Russian flag cannot fly at 2024 Olympics: Macron

The Russian flag cannot be flown at next summer’s Olympics in Paris, the French president said.

"Russia has no place (in the Olympics) at a time when it commits war crimes and deports children," Emmanuel Macron told French sports daily L'Equipe.

Macron expressed full trust in the Olympic committee's decisions for athletes participating in the games as individuals, referring to athletes from Russia and its ally in the war effort, Belarus, who might compete individually, not under their nations’ respective flags.

He also admitted that Russian athletes who have prepared for the games their entire lives could be victims of this situation.

0947 GMT — Russia detains smugglers supplying military aircraft parts - TASS

Russia's FSB state security service said it has detained a group of smugglers trading in military aircraft parts, some of which had ended up in Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.

The smugglers were from Ukraine and a Central Asian country, TASS cited the FSB as saying.

It said the group purchased and repaired military airplane and helicopter parts in Russia to export them to foreign consumers including those acting on behalf of the Ukrainian military.

It said it had confiscated over 1,000 pieces of military aircraft equipment and found documents confirming the group repaired aircraft and helicopter modules for Ukraine.

0931 GMT — Ukraine is gaining ground in its counter-offensive: NATO

Ukraine is making progress with a counter-offensive started in June to reclaim territory seized by Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, even though it was slow going due to Russian fortifications and minefields.

"The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground...They have been able to breach the defensive lines of the Russian forces, and they are moving forward," Stoltenberg told lawmakers in remarks at the European Parliament.

Stoltenberg said it had to be expected that the offensive would be advancing only slowly.

"No one ever said that this was going to be easy," he noted. "Hardly any time in history we have seen more mines on the battlefield than we are seeing in Ukraine today. So it was obvious that this was going to be extremely difficult."

0925 GMT — Kremlin decries US plan to give seized Russian money to Ukraine

A US plan to send Ukraine funds seized from Russian businesspeople targeted by sanctions is illegal and any such actions will be contested, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov told reporters: "This is hard to imagine and it goes against everything in international law and those countries' national law. But as soon as an opportunity presents itself, we will defend our rights."

Peskov said some Russian entrepreneurs had already secured court rulings in European countries finding such transfers illegal.

"Not a single case of such illegal retention will be left unattended," he said.

0843 GMT — NATO condemns Russia's withdrawal from grain deal, welcomes Türkiye's efforts to reestablish deal

NATO condemned Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal this summer and also welcomed Türkiye's efforts to reestablish the deal.

"We condemn that Russia has withdrawn from the Black Sea grain deal. We welcome the efforts by Türkiye to try to reestablish the Grain Deal," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the EU Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"And of course, the best way to ensure safe and secure shipment of grain from Ukraine is to end the war," Stoltenberg added, referring to the Ukraine war, now more than 18 months old.

0512 GMT — Russian drones hit Ukraine port area again: governor

Russian drones attacked the district encompassing Ukraine's Danube river port of Izmail for the fourth time in five days, the regional governor said.

Following the collapse of the deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine's southern Odessa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports.

The latest overnight attack, using Iranian-made Shahed drones, lasted three hours, Odessa regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

"Civil and port infrastructure facilities, an elevator and an administrative building were damaged."

A civilian truck driver sustained a minor leg injury, he added.

0212 GMT — Ukrainian drones downed near Moscow, Rostov: RIA

A Ukrainian drone was downed near Moscow and two over the southern Rostov region, the RIA news agency cited Russia's Defence Ministry as saying.

According to another news agency, TASS, three buildings were damaged in the city of Rostov-on-Don and one person was injured when one of the drones crashed in the downtown area.

The other drone in the Rostov region fell outside the city.

0000 GMT — 'Inhumanity' - Russia fumes as US arms Kiev with depleted uranium

Russia has denounced as an "indicator of inhumanity" a US plan to provide Ukraine with arms containing depleted uranium.

"The administration's decision to supply weapons with depleted uranium is an indicator of inhumanity," Russia's embassy in Washington said on Telegram.

"Clearly, with its idea of inflicting a 'strategic defeat', Washington is prepared to fight not only to the last Ukrainian but also to do away with entire generations."

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process needed to create nuclear weapons.

The rounds retain some radioactive properties, but they can't generate a nuclear reaction like a nuclear weapon would, RAND nuclear expert and policy researcher Edward Geist said.

For our live updates from Wednesday (September 6), click here.