Putin ain’t restarting the grain deal between Ukraine, Turkey and Russia using the Black Sea….
In Fact Russia wants to send grain to Turkey for export locking out Ukraine exports….
Russia also attacks Ukraine grain storage again….
Putin isn’t getting but so far with China ….
But is now turning to North Korea….
The Ukraine is making its own drones….And is increasing the number made….
Hours before the Russian and Turkish leaders met, Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with drones, damaging grain infrastructure.
Here’s what we’re covering:
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In meeting Putin, Erdogan positions himself again as the middleman.
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Putin restates Russian complaints about the Black Sea grain deal.
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Russia launches another attack on Ukrainian grain facilities on the Danube.
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Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who was detained after the Wagner mutiny, is released.
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A Nobel Prize-winning Russian journalist will fight the Kremlin’s decision to label him a ‘foreign agent.’
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Who is Rustem Umerov, Zelensky’s nominee for defense minister?
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Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Putin and Kim will probably meet in Vladivostok, a port city in eastern Russia not far from North Korea, senior administration officials said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. The White House said last week that it had intelligence showing Putin and Kim had swapped letters.
The White House expects Putin and Kim to continue discussions about weapons. A spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined to address the Kim-Putin meeting, but she said their arms negotiations are “advancing.” “We have information that Kim Jong-Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia,” Adrienne Watson said.
Russia intends to send 1 million tons of grain to Turkey for delivery to the world’s poorest countries, Putin said after talks with Erdogan, but the two leaders had not agreed to reinstate the larger grain deal that had been brokered by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations. Putin instead reiterated that Russia would rejoin the grain deal only when restrictions on Russian exports are lifted.
Erdogan added that there is no alternative to the deal and that they must correct its “deficiencies,” Anadolu reported, though it’s not clear which points he was referring to. Details of the smaller agreement, which the Russian president said would involve Qatar, were not immediately available.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said the grain deal should not be restored by conceding to Russian demands. Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s insistence that it would rejoin the deal when its demands are met was “blackmail,” according to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform. He added that if Ukraine made concessions to Russia now, in a month Moscow might call for yet additional terms to stay in the agreement.
Russia is discussing the possibility of holding a joint naval exercise with North Korea, Shoigu told reporters Monday. During a visit to North Korea, Shoigu proposed a trilateral exercise that would include China, according to a report from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Russia and North Korea have been discussing potential weapons shipments, according to U.S. officials.
Russia will not hold its Zapad, or West, military exercise this year as it fights a real war, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday. “This year we have an exercise in Ukraine,” he told reporters. The large-scale military drill, which in 2021 involved 200,000 troops, was a key mobilization effort for the Soviet Union.