Today in Rome, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Russia to return to the international agreement on maritime shipments of Ukrainian grain, and assessed that without it, the most vulnerable among the hungry in the world will suffer the most terrible consequences.
In his speech at the opening of the three-day food summit in Rome, Guterres said that due to Russia's recent decision to refuse to extend the validity of the Ukrainian-Russian agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain, not only "the most vulnerable will pay the highest price", but the negative consequences arrived immediately: the price of wheat in the world rose by 14 percent, and corn by more than 10 percent.
Russia justified the renewal of the agreement by not meeting its demands for comparative exports of food and fertilizers to the world.
Both Russia and Ukraine are "key to global food security", the UN leader pointed out, because those two countries account for 30 percent of the world's wheat and barley exports, 20 percent of the world's corn exports, and more than half of the world's sunflower oil exports.
Guterres said he was "committed to facilitating unhindered access to global food and fertilizer markets from Ukraine and the Russian Federation."
He called on the international community to be united in finding a solution to the issue based on his latest proposal.
The agreement reached in 2022, brokered by the UN and Turkey, aimed to maintain the flow of grain to developing countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East, despite Moscow's war against Ukraine.
When that agreement was reached, the United Nations World Food Program regained its largest supplier - Ukraine, allowing the delivery of 725.000 metric tons of humanitarian food aid to countries on the brink of famine, including Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Yemen.
The suspension of the agreement, as well as Russian attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea ports, have upset Russia's ally China, as well as developing countries that are heavily dependent on the supplies to feed their people.
In addition to the grain agreement, the effects of climate change on food production and distribution are a topic of discussion at the Rome summit.
"We need food systems that can help end this senseless war," Guterres said. "Transformation means new, sustainable systems that can reduce the carbon footprint of food processing, packaging and transportation," he said.
Such a transformation also requires states and businesses to "take stronger and faster measures to address the climate crisis and deliver environmental and climate justice," he pointed out.
The way food is grown and produced contributes to climate change, weakening the agri-food system, says Korina Hawkes, director of the Food Systems and Food Security Division at the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which is hosting the summit.
The goal of the meeting is to review progress and setbacks since the first food systems summit held in 2021.
According to the FAO, the summit brought together participants from 161 countries, including 22 heads of state or government, and 150 non-governmental organizations.
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the extension of the ban on the export of Ukrainian grains by land to the European Union is "unacceptable", reports Reuters.
"Our position is clear: blocking exports by land after September 15, when the ban expires, is unacceptable in any form," Zelenski said on Telegram.
Five members of the European Union from Central Europe jointly asked the European bloc to extend the ban on the import of Ukrainian grains beyond September 15 in order to avoid problems on the market, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy said recently.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law today increasing the upper age limit for military reservists by five years.
According to the new law, the maximum age of soldiers, sergeants and ensigns in the reserve was increased from 35 to 40 years, middle-ranking officers in the reserve from 45 to 50, and senior officers in the reserve from 50 to 55 years.
During the mobilization, the maximum age of reserve officers will be increased by an additional five years, Radio Free Europe reports.
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"Russia reserves the right to take strong retaliatory measures," the Foreign Ministry said, after accusing Ukraine of using drones to attack Moscow and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Ministry of Defense of Russia, according to the Reuters agency, announced earlier that Ukraine fired 17 drones at Crimea during the night, while a drone attack on Moscow damaged buildings.
Moscow has denied that Russian forces hit a church in the Ukrainian city of Odessa and said, without providing evidence, that it was hit by a missile launched by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that a Russian rocket fell on the Transfiguration Church in Odesa, that is, the Transfiguration Church.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said the church was likely hit by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.
Ukraine claims it has recaptured more than 16 square kilometers of territory from Russian forces in the east and south of the country, nearly two months after the start of a counteroffensive designed to push Russian troops out of Ukraine.
"During Sunday... four square kilometers were liberated in the Bahmut sector, and 12,6 square kilometers in the south," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Gana Maliar told Ukrainian television.
She welcomed these "successes" in two zones where the Ukrainian army has been trying for several weeks to break through Russian defenses.
Since the beginning of the counteroffensive in early June, Ukrainian forces have "liberated" 35 square kilometers in the eastern zone around Bakhmut and 192 square kilometers in the south, the deputy minister added.
She also said that last week, the Russian military carried out attacks designed to push Ukrainian troops away from the Oskil River and to look for weak points in Ukrainian defenses towards Kupyansk in the northeast.
In recent days, the Russian military claimed to have made some progress in the zone, saying it had taken control of a train station.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the Ukrainian counter-offensive had "failed" while Kiev recently admitted that the major operation would be "long and difficult".
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it found traces of explosives on a ship traveling from Turkey to the port of Rostov-on-Don to pick up grain, TASS reported.
It quoted the FSB as saying the ship was docked in the Ukrainian port of Kili in May and may have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine.
The announcement came a week after Russia pulled out of an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, with ships undergoing security inspections.
An ammunition depot was hit early this morning in Dzhankoy, Crimea, and Russian air defense forces intercepted or suppressed 11 drones over the area, a Russian official said.
Sergei Aksyonov, the governor of the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, also said that a residential building in the area had been damaged.
The Reuters agency reports that it is not clear whether the ammunition storage was directly hit by the drone or it was damaged when the remains of the drone fell.
Russia has a military airbase near Dzhankoy. Ukrainian officials have long said the city and surrounding areas have been turned into Moscow's largest military base in Crimea.
A Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa destroyed a grain warehouse and injured four port employees, Ukraine's southern military command announced on social media.
According to preliminary information, three drones were destroyed in the attacks, the command announced.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Fragments of a drone were found early this morning on Komsomolsky Avenue in Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing emergency services.
TASS reported that according to preliminary information, there were no injuries.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Telegram channels linked to Russia's FSB reported that residents of several districts in the southwest and south of Moscow reported the sounds of explosions.
Komsomolsky Avenue is located in the central administrative district of Moscow, not far from the buildings of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russian anti-aircraft forces thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow early this morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced.
According to Reuters, the Russian Ministry reported that two drones were intercepted and destroyed.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced that drones hit two non-residential buildings in Moscow around four o'clock this morning, the mayor of Moscow said.
"There was no serious damage or injuries," Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.
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