At the request of Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is calling a meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council next Wednesday. The aim is to discuss the latest developments and to discuss the transport of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, said alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu on Saturday evening. The meeting should take place at ambassador level.

Shortly before the announcement, Stoltenberg had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Stoltenberg then said: "We strongly condemn Moscow's attempt to use food as a weapon." Allies would stand by Ukraine for as long as needed. Zelenskyi stated that he and Stoltenberg had discussed the implementation of the agreements reached at the summit and further steps to integrate Ukraine into the Western Defense Alliance. Necessary steps have also been identified to unblock grain transport across the Black Sea and to ensure it in the long term. However, he did not say what those steps are.

Last Monday, Russia allowed an agreement concluded a year ago to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea to expire because, according to the Kremlin, Moscow's demands for facilitation of its agricultural exports had not been met. Since the summer of last year, the agreement has enabled Ukraine to sell almost 33 million tons of grain and food to other countries by sea, despite the Russian war of aggression. Even during the war, Ukraine remained the World Food Program’s largest wheat supplier in 2022.

At the NATO summit in Vilnius a few days earlier, the 31 members of the defense alliance decided to further intensify cooperation with Ukraine and to establish the new NATO-Ukraine Council. A new multi-year support program was also approved.

Zelenskyj is pushing for the resumption of grain deliveries

Despite the expired grain agreement with Russia, Zelenskyy is pushing for grain exports to continue across the Black Sea. "Any destabilization in this region and the disruption of our export routes brings problems with corresponding consequences for everyone in the world," he said in his daily video address on Saturday evening. The increase in food prices is the smallest problem.

Media come under fire

Media representatives were injured and killed in two different locations in Ukraine on Saturday. A Russian military correspondent died in the south of the country, according to information from Moscow. Shortly afterwards, a Deutsche Welle cameraman was injured by Russian fire in eastern Ukraine. "Four journalists suffered injuries of varying severity as a result of cluster munitions fired on them by the Ukrainian armed forces," the Russian Defense Ministry said. The correspondent of the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti, Rostislav Zhuravlyov, died on the way to the field hospital from his wounds.

According to Deutsche Welle, a station team in eastern Ukraine came under Russian artillery fire while filming at a Ukrainian army training area a little more than 20 kilometers behind the front near Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region. The cameraman, Yevhen Shylko, suffered shrapnel injuries from Russian cluster munitions.

Leopard tank repair center in Poland opens

A repair center in Poland for Leopard tanks delivered to Ukraine, which German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) called for, has been completed and put into operation. This was announced by Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Saturday evening. The first two Leopards have already arrived at the Bumar plant from Ukraine," the national conservative minister wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Several dead after shelling in eastern and northeastern Ukraine

Several people were killed and injured by Russian shelling in Ukraine. In the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region in the east of the country, a resident was killed by Russian shelling on Saturday, the local prosecutor said on Telegram. Another person was killed and one injured in the shelling of Dvorichna in the Kupyansk area, it said. According to the military administration of the Sumy region in the north-east of the country, several towns were shelled with artillery or helicopters on Saturday. The information could not be independently verified.

Dead and injured in new Russian attacks on Odessa

According to the authorities, at least one person was killed in renewed Russian attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Odessa on the Black Sea. 19 other people were injured on Sunday night, including four children, said the head of the military administration, Oleh Kiper, on his Telegram channel. "There is damage to civilian infrastructure, residential buildings and a religious facility." According to media reports, the Orthodox Transfiguration Cathedral was damaged. In addition, six residential buildings were destroyed and dozens of cars damaged.

Ukrainian chief of administration: Russian attack with cluster munitions

The head of the military administration in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported on a Russian attack with cluster munitions on the city of Chasiv Yar. As a result, the city's Palace of Culture, which was used as a medical center, burned down.

Strack-Zimmermann: Deficits in secret services in crisis situations

The Chair of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, believes that the German intelligence services are no longer adequate in crisis situations. "You obviously need more employees, but they should also be given the green light to be closer to the action," said the FDP politician to the German Press Agency in Berlin. "We also base our knowledge on friendly services. We then derive our information from this and get an idea of ​​the situation. Can it be that other countries take a much more researchy and closer look?" After the armed uprising by the head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozchin, against Moscow's military leadership, criticism of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was voiced.

Putin receives Belarusian ruler Lukashenko

For the second time since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has received his ally, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. The two visited a museum honoring the Russian Navy not far from the Russian Baltic Sea metropolis of St. Petersburg. According to the Kremlin chief, the working visit will continue tomorrow.

Authoritarian Belarus is considered Russia's most important ally in the war that has been going on for 17 months. Rockets are fired from Belarusian territory. Once again, Putin and Lukashenko downplayed the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Lukashenko also commented on soldiers from the Russian private army Wagner, who were resettled in Belarus after a failed uprising against Moscow. "The Wagner people started trying to make an effort for us," he said. The mercenaries wanted to "take a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszów," he added. Both are cities in Poland. Lukashenko assured that the mercenaries would remain stationed in central areas of Belarus.