Once a day, NU.nl gives you an overview of the situation in Ukraine. This time: Ukrainian troops have been pushed back to the edges of the strategic Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. Furthermore, Ukraine does not intend to clear the port of Odesa of mines in order to make grain exports possible again.
Russian troops have pushed Ukrainian troops back to the outskirts of Severodonetsk, Luhansk region governor Serhi Haidai reported. He stressed that the Russians are in control of most of the strategic Ukrainian city.
He also says that the Russians are constantly shelling the neighboring town of Lysychansk. They cause great damage, according to Haidai.
Earlier on Wednesday, the governor said Ukrainian troops may be withdrawing to more defensible positions in Severodonetsk. Whether that actually happened is unclear.
The British Ministry of Defense reported this morning that the Ukrainian army was holding out in Severodonetsk. According to British intelligence, it did not appear that any of the warring factions had made much headway in the past 24 hours.
Ukraine does not want to mine Odesa port for grain exports
Ukraine has no plans to mine the waters around the port of Odesa to allow grain exports to resume. The Ukrainians fear that Russia will use it to attack the important port city.
Turkey and Russia met in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss the establishment of a security corridor to ship Ukrainian grain stuck in ports due to a Russian blockade. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is ready to facilitate the safe passage of Ukrainian grain.
Bratchuk said before the Russian announcement that all exports from Odesa must be supervised “by NATO countries”. Turkey, a member of NATO, has offered to escort convoys from Ukrainian ports.
Before the war, Ukraine was one of the world’s leading exporters of wheat, accounting for half of the world’s trade in sunflower seeds and oil.
More than 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war sent to Russia
More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered last month in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia “for investigation”, Russia’s news agency reported. TASS based on sources within the Ministry of Justice.
Ukraine demands the transfer of the approximately 2,000 defenders of the Azovstal factory in a prisoner exchange. However, Russian MPs are demanding that some soldiers be tried. They mainly concern soldiers of the Azov regiment, which according to Russia and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region is Nazi.
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged bodies of soldiers again, Kyiv reports. The countries each transferred fifty bodies. Of the Ukrainian dead, 37 hid for a long time in the Azovstal factory.
UN uses Uber to deliver relief supplies in Ukraine
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has partnered with taxi app Uber to deliver relief supplies to urban areas in Ukraine. Because of the war, they are sometimes difficult to reach for large trucks.
The WFP uses a special version of the technology platform that Uber uses to deploy cars and vans within 100 kilometers of WFP warehouses to distribution points. With this system, everyone involved can see where the vehicles are and when the relief supplies will arrive at their destination.
Aid supplies are already being distributed in this way in cities such as Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Vinnitsja and Chernivtsi, the UN agency reports. According to the emergency coordinator in Ukraine, the free technology offered by Uber improves cooperation between WFP and local companies, making distribution more efficient.
The WFP has been scaling up its activities in and around Ukraine over the past three months. The organization aims to provide food and money to more than 3 million people a month in the country by the end of June.