Workers pulled scores of bodies from smashed buildings in an “endless caravan of death” inside the devastated city of Mariupol, authorities said Wednesday, while fears of a global food crisis escalated over Ukraine’s inability to export millions of tons of grain through its blockaded ports. The Western leaders have chided Russia for blockading the Ukrainian ports, setting prices of grain and other commodities on a rise. The United Nations has said a global food crisis is deepening and has been trying to broker a deal to unblock Ukraine’s grain exports.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that Ukraine is willing to negotiate with Russia to end the war – but “not at the expense of our independence.”
Top updates on Russia-Ukraine War
> In many of Mariupol’s buildings – the port city on the Sea of Azov in southeastern Ukraine – workers have found 50 to 100 bodies each, news agency AP reported quoting a mayoral aide in the Russian-held port city in the south. The city has seen the worst fighting of the three-month-long war.
> On peace talks that have been halted since March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia is unwilling to negotiate an end to the war because it still feels strong. Zelensky added that for Russia to join in negotiations “is simply not possible now because Russia can still feel its power.” Speaking via a video link, he added: “We need to weaken Russia and the world is supposed to do it.”
> The President of the war-torn nation said Ukraine is doing its part on the battlefield and called for even tougher sanctions to weaken Russia economically, AP reported He also said Ukraine is willing to negotiate with Russia to end the war – but “not at the expense of our independence.”
> On the war front, the Ukrainian President says Russian forces have made no significant advances in the eastern Donbas region over the past day. In his nightly video address, Zelensky said late on Tuesday that the “absolutely heroic defence of the Donbas” continues. This comes as Russia claims to have taken control of 97 per cent of one of the two provinces that make up Ukraine’s Donbas.
> The Ukrainian armed forces claimed its troops held back the Russian assault in the key eastern Ukraine city of Sievierodonetsk, while fighting in the city and in the villages to the south of it continued. Meanwhile, the governor of the Luhansk region said the Russian forces “control most of the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk” and are heavily shelling the twin city of Lysychansk, causing major damage.
> The consequences of the war are being felt far beyond Eastern Europe because shipments of Ukrainian grain are bottled up inside the country, driving up the price of food. Exports by Ukraine – one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat – have been halted by the war and a Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. An estimated 22 million tons of grain remains in Ukraine. The failure to ship it out is endangering the food supply in many developing countries, especially in Africa.
> Russia expressed support Wednesday for a UN plan to create a safe corridor at sea that would allow Ukraine to resume grain shipments. The plan calls for Ukraine to remove mines from the waters near the Black Sea port of Odessa; Ukraine has expressed fear that clearing the mines could enable Russia to attack the coast. Russia also insists that it should be allowed to check incoming vessels for weapons.
> Hard hit by sanctions since Feb 24, Russia’s economy will shrink by 15 per cent this year and another 3 per cent in 2023, wiping out 15 years of economic gains, according to the Institute of International Finance, a global banking trade group.
(With inputs from AP, AFP, Reuters)