ARAB AND WORLD
Wed 15 Mar 2023 9:51 pm - Jerusalem Time
Russian bombardment of the center of Kramatorsk and the dismissal of the head of the security services in Ukraine
Kramatorsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - A missile attack killed one person on Tuesday in Kramatorsk, the main city under Kiev control in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces want to completely control, while the Kiev parliament voted to dismiss the head of the security services and the prosecutor. the public.
On the diplomatic level, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who plays the role of mediator in the conflict, in order to discuss a possible agreement on the liberalization of Ukrainian grain exports.
The draft agreement, which was negotiated through the United Nations to avert a global food crisis, aims to remove about 20 million tons of grain stuck in Ukrainian warehouses due to the Russian-led offensive in Ukraine since February 24, via the Black Sea.
On Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell considered the resumption of grain exports from Ukraine a "matter of life and death" and there was "hope" that an agreement would be reached this week to open the port of Odessa.
He said that "the lives of (...) tens of thousands of people depend on this agreement," which is being negotiated between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations.
And in Kramatorsk, a rocket landed in the morning in a small park surrounded by four-storey buildings in the center of the city, as reported by Agence France-Presse journalists.
The city, which had a population of 150,000 before the war, is the administrative center of a part of the Donetsk region that Kiev controls.
It is located about twenty kilometers from the front, and is subject to frequent bombing.
"At this point, there is only one death," Igor Iskov, who is in charge of communication in the city's municipality, told AFP, while a senior police official announced six injuries.
Firefighters were trying to put out the flames on the two floors of a building whose windows were all blown out.
Russia announced on Saturday that it had officially ended its "cessation of operations" imposed by its army a few days ago, and the bombing had resumed in Donbass.
And the Ukrainian presidency announced on Tuesday that Russian forces fired seven missiles in the Odessa region, injuring at least six people, including a child.
She explained, "An anti-aircraft missile destroyed it.
Six others were wounded in a town where many residential buildings and other facilities were destroyed.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the air strikes on Odessa destroyed a stock of ammunition provided by the West to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian parliament voted Tuesday in favor of dismissing the head of the security services and the public prosecutor, a proposal put forward by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"Parliament voted to remove Irina Venediktova from her post as Prosecutor," MP David Arakhamia wrote on Telegram.
Other deputies also announced the dismissal of the head of the security services, Ivan Bakanov.
Zelensky announced the replacement of the two officials on Sunday and criticized them for the insufficient efforts they were making in fighting Russian spies and collaborators with Moscow.
On Monday, Zelensky again announced a "reconsideration of officials" within the Department of Security Services, while three senior officials in this institution were suspected of high treason in recent months.
The war in Ukraine will enter its sixth month on July 24 and there is no total number of civilian deaths due to the conflict yet.
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Russian bombardment of the center of Kramatorsk and the dismissal of the head of the security services in Ukraine