Renewed accusations of bombing the Zaporizhia station, and the IAEA confirms that the "situation is critical"

Export of the first shipment of wheat from Ukraine with the departure of two other ships

The cargo ship Surmovsky left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk with 3050 tons of wheat on board.

Reuters

The first cargo ship loaded with wheat since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

While Kyiv accused the Russian forces again of bombing the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the UN Security Council that the "critical situation" at the station, which Moscow and Kiev exchanged accusations of launching new strikes, added that the agency must be allowed access to it.

In detail, the Turkish Ministry of Defense said on Twitter yesterday that the ship Surmovsky, flying the Belize flag, left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk with 3050 tons of wheat on board, on the way to the Tekirdag region in northwestern Turkey.

It was the first shipment of wheat from Ukraine, which along with Russia accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports before February 24, when Moscow launched what it calls a "special military operation" to disarm its neighbour.

The ministry added that two other ships left Ukraine's ports on the Black Sea yesterday, and one of them was loaded with the first Ukrainian shipment of wheat to be exported under an agreement brokered by the United Nations.

Meanwhile, the Star Laura will leave the Ukrainian port of Bivdnyi.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said the ship would transport more than 60,000 tons of corn to Iran.

In the same context, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed the departure and announced the arrival of two more ships for loading.

In all, 14 ships carrying more than 430,000 tons of cargo have left Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea since August 1, under an internationally brokered grain export agreement.

The agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, was reached last month amid fears that the loss of Ukraine's grain supplies could lead to severe food shortages and even starvation in parts of the world.

The Joint Coordination Center, where personnel from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations work, inspects all ships in Istanbul under the UN-brokered deal.

Refinitiv ship tracking data showed that the Razzoni, the first ship to leave Ukraine under the agreement, docked in Turkey on Thursday and is scheduled to head to Egypt, after the first buyer of the shipment in Lebanon refused to take delivery of it due to a five-month delay.

The Rahmi Yacci, which left Ukraine on Tuesday for Istanbul, is docked at the northern end of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, while Mustafa Necati, which left for Italy on Sunday, is docked at the southern end.

Four other ships were approved to travel to Ukraine after being inspected by a team from the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

Meanwhile, Ukraine again accused Russian forces of bombing the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country, and denied entry to an inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the international community to "immediately act" to remove the Russians from the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which was targeted by bombings.

For his part, the Ukrainian envoy to the United Nations, Sergey Kiseltsya, said at a meeting of the UN Security Council that the unjustified Russian conditions and bombing prevented a visit by the IAEA experts.

For his part, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency told the UN Security Council that the "situation is critical" at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, adding that the agency must be allowed access to it.

"The situation is critical and the International Atomic Energy Agency must be allowed to send a mission to Zaporizhia as soon as possible," Rafael Grossi said during his video speech at the emergency meeting of the Security Council.

Grossi stressed that "time is running out", while the agency has been trying for weeks to send a mission to inspect the station.

When asked about accusations by the United Nations of being responsible for the delay in sending the International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the site, the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, rejected this idea again.

"It's about a nuclear plant in the middle of a battlefield," Stephane Dujarric said. "There are a lot of obstacles."

In Moscow, prominent Russian politicians expressed their rejection of the demand of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries, that Moscow return control of the Zaporizhia nuclear plant to Ukraine.

"No, not again," said Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, in response to a question, according to the Russian news agency, Interfax.

He added that to ensure the safety of the nuclear power plant, full control of the facility is essential.

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