« Cis a positive trend in relations with Israel”, declared Volodymyr Zelensky, Wednesday at a press conference in kyiv, about the latest exchanges between Ukraine and Israel. The two countries have indeed shared information concerning the “400 Iranian drones” used, according to the Ukrainian president, by Russia during its military invasion of Ukraine. “So we are at the beginning of cooperation,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I am satisfied with the last few days: we have started to work”, he further underlined, indicating that, according to him, “everyone wants warmer relations” between the two countries. The Ukrainian president, however, noted that, in his opinion, “today it is not enough”. “Israel is a state that deeply knows […] what war really is, and I think he should support Ukraine more,” he urged the press.
Volodymyr Zelensky refuses any discussion with Moscow
“The intelligence data that is currently being exchanged confirms once again what our services knew: around 400 Iranian drones have already been used against the Ukrainian civilian population” by Russia, he said. According to him, “60 to 70% of them were shot down” by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense. Tehran and Moscow have repeatedly denied the accusations in recent days.
At his side in front of the journalists, the Bissau-Guinean Umaro Sissoco Embalo, current president of ECOWAS, affirmed that Vladimir Putin, whom he had visited on Tuesday, “had expressed the idea that he was ready to negotiate with President Zelensky. Volodymyr Zelensky quickly brushed aside any possibility of talks with Moscow, as long as the Russian army “strikes the infrastructure” in Ukraine, he said.
READ ALSOUnited States: elected officials return to their call for Biden to negotiate with Moscow
“Let’s start unblocking at least the Black Sea,” he proposed, as kyiv accuses Moscow of deliberately delaying 170 ships intended to transport grain from Ukraine to many countries in Africa and Asia. “The desire to talk about the Russian president is, I think, nothing more than prepared rhetoric,” he added.
READ ALSOWar in Ukraine: “peace is possible”, says Emmanuel Macron
“Extremely fierce fighting” near Bakhmout
“Extremely fierce fighting” is taking place “near Bakhmout”, a city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine which has been a priority target for the Russian army for months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. . “The situation on the front line is not experiencing significant changes. Extremely fierce fighting is taking place in the Donetsk region, near Bakhmout and Avdiivka,” he said in his daily address posted on social media.
READ ALSOUkraine: in the air too, Russia is losing the war
On Tuesday, seven civilians were killed and three others injured in Bakhmout, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian armies is raging there, with Moscow’s troops desperate to achieve success after several setbacks since early September.
READ ALSOVladimir Putin: how far can he take us?
“The Russian occupiers have already lost so much equipment – aviation and others – that most of the world’s armies simply do not have and will never have in service”, also assured Volodymyr Zelensky. According to him, “Russia will not be able to compensate for these losses”. Finally, he again denounced “the madness of the Russian command”, particularly “visible according to him” in the east of the country by “sending people to death (…) day after day”.
Towards an extension of the cereals agreement
The head of the UN humanitarian agency said he was “relatively optimistic” on Wednesday about the extension of the agreement which allows Ukrainian grain exports, optimism tempered by Russia which insisted on its demands. The so-called Black Sea agreement, signed on July 22 under the aegis of the UN, set up procedures for 120 days to allow the export of Ukrainian cereals blocked by the war.
The system has allowed the export of nearly 9 million tonnes of grain and relieved the global food crisis caused by the war, but the uncertainties around the extension of the agreement have already pushed up the prices of some products. “We want it to be renewed quickly now. It’s important for the market, it’s important for continuity,” commented Martin Griffiths on Wednesday, who recently traveled to Moscow with Rebeca Grynspan, secretary general of UNCTAD, the UN organization in charge of trade and development. .