The board overseeing an international deal aimed at taking 20 million tons of grain out of Ukraine to feed people in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia said the laden ships were cleared of departure on Sunday. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations agreed last month to create a sea corridor that would allow cargo ships to travel safely from Ukraine’s southern coast.
Lebanese officials said the process is proceeding slowly, and that the ship that left Ukraine last Monday amid much fanfare, as the arrival of the first ship under the agreement to Lebanon was postponed on Sunday. The reason was not immediately clear.
The shipments are a hopeful first step, but they are far from solving the global food crisis exacerbated by the war.
Ukraine’s nuclear power plant operator Energoatom reported that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, located in southeastern Ukraine, came under Russian fire late Saturday. The bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant damaged three radiation monitors and injured one worker. Russia has blamed Ukraine for the bombing.
Russian forces occupied the station for months. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently said he is concerned about the way the plant is being run and that the fighting around it poses serious health and environmental threats.
Grossi, who issued a statement on Saturday saying that the attack did not cause significant damage, said “every principle of nuclear safety” at the plant was violated.
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