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Two More Ships Depart From Ukraine, Says Turkey’s Defense Ministry

A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Lion leaves the sea port in Chornomorsk after restarting grain export, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukraine August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Smolientsev
A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Lion leaves the sea port in Chornomorsk after restarting grain export, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukraine August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Smolientsev
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Two More Ships Depart From Ukraine, Says Turkey’s Defense Ministry

A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Lion leaves the sea port in Chornomorsk after restarting grain export, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukraine August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Smolientsev
A Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Ocean Lion leaves the sea port in Chornomorsk after restarting grain export, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukraine August 9, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Smolientsev

Two more ships left from Ukraine's Black Sea ports on Friday, Turkey's defense ministry said, bringing the total number of ships to depart the country under a UN-brokered deal to 14 and marking the first export of wheat.

Belize-flagged Sormovsky left Ukraine's Chornomorsk port, carrying 3,050 tons of wheat to Turkey's northwestern Tekirdag province, it said.

Also, Marshall Island-flagged Star Laura departed from Pivdennyi and headed to Iran, carrying 60,000 tons of corn, Reuters reported.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the agreement last month after warnings that the halt in grain shipments caused by the conflict could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it calls a "special operation" to demilitarise its neighbour, the two countries together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports.

The resumption of grain exports is being overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN personnel are working.

Ukraine hopes to export 20 million tons of grain in silos and 40 million from its new harvest, the country's economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said in July. The government hopes to earn $10 billion for its shattered economy from those volumes but Ustenko said it could take 20 to 24 months to export them if ports are not functioning properly.

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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Russia Condemns ‘Irresponsible’ Talk of Nuclear Weapons for Ukraine

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia October 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Discussion in the West about arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons is "absolutely irresponsible", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in response to a report in the New York Times citing unidentified officials who suggested such a possibility.

The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.

"Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications," the newspaper wrote.

Asked about the report, Peskov told reporters: "These are absolutely irresponsible arguments of people who have a poor understanding of reality and who do not feel a shred of responsibility when making such statements. We also note that all of these statements are anonymous."

Earlier, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.

Ukraine inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, but gave them up under a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum, in return for security assurances from Russia, the United States and Britain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last month that as Ukraine had handed over the nuclear weapons, joining NATO was the only way it could deter Russia.

The 33-month Russia-Ukraine war saw escalations on both sides last week, after Ukraine fired US and British missiles into Russia for the first time, with permission from the West, and Moscow responded by launching a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile into Ukraine.

Asked about the risk of a nuclear escalation, Peskov said the West should "listen carefully" to Putin and read Russia's newly updated nuclear doctrine, which lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

Separately, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin said Moscow opposes simply freezing the conflict in Ukraine because it needs a "solid and long-term peace" that resolves the core reasons for the crisis.