NU.nl regularly gives you an overview of the situation in Ukraine. This time: Turkey announces that Russia and Ukraine will sign an agreement on Friday to resume grain transport through the Black Sea. The European Police Service Europol also reports that criminal networks are smuggling weapons from Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine sign an agreement Friday that aims to alleviate the global food crisis. The countries are doing this by restarting grain transport via the Black Sea. Currently, Ukraine’s grain exports are virtually at a standstill, leaving millions of people in poor countries suffering from a food crisis.
The announcement of the agreement was announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He presents himself as a mediator in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and will be present at the signing of the agreement with UN chief António Guterres.
According to Erdogan, the forthcoming agreement provides for the establishment of a UN-supervised coordination center in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
Europol sees arms smuggling from Ukraine
Criminal networks smuggle significant amounts of (military) weapons and ammunition from Ukraine. Several EU Member States have reported this to Europol, according to a letter from the European Police Service to the EU, which the German broadcaster reported. SWR message.
Several times people are said to have tried to leave Ukraine with firearms. The service speaks of organized arms smuggling from Ukraine. Europol writes, among other things, about the possible terrorist threat to the EU that this could create.
Another problem is that some Ukrainians who have fled to the EU have left behind weapons and ammunition in the border area that they need for self-defense at home. Europol fears that these weapons and ammunition could fall into the hands of criminal gangs.
In addition, some Ukrainian refugees are suspected of smuggling firearms into the EU to sell them there. Taxi rides would have been settled with firearms.
CIA: ‘15,000 Russian soldiers killed so far’
The US intelligence agency CIA estimates the number of Russian soldiers killed in the fight against Ukraine at 15,000. An additional 45,000 soldiers are said to have been wounded since the outbreak of the war on February 24.
Russia itself is not exactly transparent about the number of losses. The Kremlin’s last update came on March 25, a month after the war started. At the time, authorities reported that 1,351 Russians had died in the battle. Since then there have been no more updates.
Ukraine also has significant losses to regret. The government in Kyiv estimated the daily number of soldiers killed at 100 to 200. The CIA also warns of major losses on the Ukrainian side. It is not clear how large the total number of killed soldiers is.
After a short ‘battle break’, Russia is now fully focused on the capture of the Donets basin in eastern Ukraine.
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