Ukraine – Russia, news from the war: today the summit of Zelensky, Guterres, Erdogan

Today, Guterres and Erdogan meet with Zelensky

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv, western Ukraine, today to discuss the situation in the country nearly six months after the Russian invasion.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the three would discuss the latest agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain but also “the need for a political solution to the conflict”. “I have no doubts that the issue of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will also be discussed,” he added.

In his traditional evening statement, Zelensky said yesterday that Guterres has “already arrived” in Ukraine. “We will work together to achieve the necessary results for Ukraine,” he added. The Secretary-General should meet with Zelensky bilaterally. Then on Friday he plans to travel to Odessa, one of the three ports used under the grain export agreement, before heading to Turkey to visit the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) responsible for overseeing the agreement.
According to the United Nations, 21 ships carrying a total of 563,317 tons of agricultural raw materials, including 451,481 tons of corn, were allowed to sail from August 1 to 15.

But the first humanitarian ship chartered by the United Nations, laden with 23,000 tons of wheat, left Ukraine for Ethiopia only on Tuesday as part of the deal struck in July under the auspices of the United Nations and thanks to Turkish mediation.
Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest wheat exporters, whose prices have risen sharply since the Russian invasion on February 24. According to the World Food Program, 345 million people in 82 countries face severe food insecurity, while up to 50 million people in 45 countries face starvation without humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, fighting on the ground continues and is causing new civilian casualties, as in the case of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, where the country’s authorities reported that a missile hit a three-storey apartment building during Russian shelling on Wednesday, causing a “strong fire” .
“At the moment there are seven dead and seventeen wounded,” said Igor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, reviewing the previous death toll of six dead and sixteen wounded.