The United Nations found no evidence of "undeclared nuclear activities" in Ukraine

The resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments .. Russia has not yet decided on the extension of the agreement

The cargo ship Zanti, carrying Ukrainian grain, sails in the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul.

EPA

Cargo ships laden with grain left Ukrainian ports on Thursday, a day after Russia returned to an international agreement to ensure its safe passage through the Black Sea, but the Kremlin said Russia had not yet decided whether to extend its participation in the deal, which expires later this month.

In detail, the United Nations Joint Coordination Center in charge of overseeing the implementation of the agreement in Istanbul announced that seven ships carrying 290,102 metric tons of grain and food products were passing through the shipping lane yesterday.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said yesterday that six ships loaded with grain had left Ukraine's Black Sea ports since Russia returned to a grain export deal.

"Six ships have left Ukrainian ports since the resumption of the grain initiative," he said, according to the ministry's website.

Akar explained that the total number of ships that left Ukraine is 426, carrying more than 9.7 million tons of grain, since the agreement was reached last July, mediated by Turkey and the United Nations.

In Brussels, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the European bloc was "grateful" for the role of the United Nations and Turkey in Russia's decision to return to the grain initiative across the Black Sea.

"Food should never be used as a weapon of war," he wrote in a tweet yesterday.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "Before making a decision on the extension, we will need to make a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the agreement."

The agreement, which was concluded in July, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, is supposed to be renewed on November 19.

Moscow had announced that it would suspend its participation in the implementation of the grain agreement, accusing Ukraine of using a safe shipping lane established under the deal to launch a drone attack on its fleet in the Black Sea.

But Ukraine denied this, accusing Russia of using a "false excuse" to withdraw from the deal.

The United Nations stressed the importance of the agreement for global food security, especially for developing countries that depend on Ukrainian food imports.

Meanwhile, the G7 countries are expected to show their continued support for Ukraine, and to send a firm message to Russia during a ministerial meeting in Münster, Germany.

"This G7 ministerial meeting comes at an important time for us," a senior US diplomat told reporters.

In this context, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it had received sufficient guarantees from Kyiv that it would not use the corridor for military purposes.

In Kyiv, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said that Ukraine did not provide any additional guarantees other than those already in the agreement signed in July.

“Ukraine has never endangered the grain corridor,” he wrote on Facebook, saying that Moscow had returned to the deal thanks to the active diplomatic efforts of the United Nations and Turkey.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the resumption of the agreement is an important diplomatic result for our country and the whole world.

Russia yesterday summoned the British ambassador and warned London of dire consequences after it accused Britain of helping Kyiv carry out an attack on Moscow's Black Sea fleet in Crimea last week.

The Russian Sputnik news agency reported that the ambassador's summons was related to the statement of the Russian Defense Ministry, regarding Britain's involvement in the attack on Russian ships in the Gulf of Sevastopol.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement said: “The ambassador was strongly protested about the active participation of British military specialists in the training and supply of units of the Ukrainian special operations forces, including for the purpose of carrying out sabotage operations at sea.

At the same time, there are concrete facts about London's activity that have been presented to it.

The Ministry informed the Ambassador that such hostile provocations are unacceptable, threaten to escalate the situation, and may lead to unforeseen and dangerous consequences.

The Foreign Ministry indicated that it had information that London had delivered a number of unmanned aircraft to Kyiv.

On the front, the frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine have remained largely static in recent days, but Russian missile strikes on power installations across the country have caused widespread blackouts as winter approaches.

In parts of the south recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces, volunteers said they were concerned about the numbers of residents returning despite the dangers.

In Moscow, a senior Russian official said yesterday that Russia had prevented a Ukrainian attack on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

Separately, pro-Russian separatist forces announced yesterday the liberation of 107 soldiers in a prisoner exchange with Kyiv.

The governor of Ukraine's Donetsk region, who was appointed by Russia, said earlier that Russia will also release 107 prisoners of Ukrainian service members it is holding.

In New York, Russia failed to pass a UN Security Council resolution on biological weapons that Moscow says the United States produces in Ukraine.

Moscow did not get the approval of the nine votes required of the United Nations, which is composed of 15 members of the draft resolution.

In Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced yesterday that it found no indications of "undeclared nuclear activities" at three sites in Ukraine, during inspections at Kyiv's request, after Russia accused it of developing a "dirty bomb".

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