প্রকাশ: 01/11/2022
President Vladimir Putin said Russian strikes on Ukrainian
infrastructure and a decision to freeze participation in a Black Sea grain
export programme were responses to a drone attack on Moscow's fleet in Crimea
that he blamed on Ukraine.
Putin told a news conference on Monday that Ukrainian drones
had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the
U.N.-brokered deal.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the attack and
denies using the grain programme's security corridor for military purposes. The
United Nations said no grain ships were using the Black Sea route on Saturday
when Russia said its vessels in Crimea were attacked.
Meanwhile, on the 250th day of a war that has ground on
since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian missiles rained down
across the country. Explosions boomed out in Kyiv, sending black smoke into the
sky.
Russian forces shelled infrastructure in at least six
Ukrainian regions on Monday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
said in a statement on Facebook.
"That's not all we could have done," Putin said at
the televised news conference, indicating more action could follow.
Oleh Synehubov, the governor of the northeastern Kharkiv
region, said on Telegram that about 140,000 residents were without power after
the attacks, including about 50,000 residents of Kharkiv city, the second
largest city in Ukraine.
Ukraine's military said it had shot down 44 of 50 Russian
missiles. But strikes left 80% of Kyiv without running water, authorities said.
Ukrainian police said 13 people were injured in the latest attacks.
For the past three weeks, Russia has attacked Ukrainian
civil infrastructure using expensive long-range missiles and cheap Iranian-made
"suicide drones" that fly at a target and detonate.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said 18 targets,
mostly energy infrastructure, were hit in missile and drone strikes on 10
Ukrainian regions on Monday.
WHEAT PRICES JUMP
Moscow announced the suspension on Saturday of its role in
the grain programme after accusing Ukraine of using air and maritime drones to
target vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol. It suggested one of the drones may
have been launched from a civilian vessel chartered to export food from
Ukrainian ports.
"Ukraine must guarantee that there will be no threats
to civilian vessels or to Russian supply vessels," Putin said on Monday,
noting that under the terms of the grain deal Russia is responsible for
ensuring security.
Ukrainian and U.N. officials said 12 ships carrying grain
sailed from Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Moscow's move. Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country would continue implementing the programme,
brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and aimed at easing global
hunger.
"We understand what we offer the world. We offer
stability on the food production market," Zelenskiy told a news
conference. He earlier said Moscow was "blackmailing the world with
hunger". Russia denies that is its aim.
The U.S. State Department said on Monday that food prices
rose because of uncertainty around the Black Sea grain deal and that Russia's
suspension of its participation was having "immediate, harmful"
impacts on global food security.
The news that Moscow was pulling out of the deal had sent
global wheat prices soaring by more than 5% on Monday morning.
Nevertheless, the continued flow of grain exports from
Ukrainian ports suggested a new world food crisis had been averted for now.
Ukraine and Russia are both among the world's largest
exporters of food. For three months, the U.N.-backed deal has guaranteed
Ukrainian exports can reach markets, lifting a Russian de facto blockade.
The ships that sailed on Monday included one hired by the
U.N. World Food Programme to bring 40,000 tonnes of grain to drought-hit
Africa.
Also on Monday, the Russian Defence Ministry said Moscow had
completed the partial military mobilisation announced by Putin in September and
no further call-up notices would be issued.
Putin announced Russia's first mobilisation since World War
Two on Sept. 21, one of a series of escalatory measures in response to
Ukrainian gains on the battlefield.
Defence Minister Shoigu said at the time that some 300,000
additional personnel would be drafted. But the mobilisation has proceeded
chaotically and thousands have fled Russia to avoid being drafted.
- Reuters
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