Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of carrying out an attack on a bridge linking its territory to the annexed Crimean peninsula, which killed two civilians.
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“Today’s (Monday) attack on the Crimean bridge was carried out by the Kiev regime,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajárova said on Telegram.
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A civilian couple died and their daughter was injured, the Russian Investigative Committee said.
“Two civilians were killed: a man and a woman, who were driving a car on the bridge. Their daughter was injured,” the Committee said.
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A source from the Ukrainian security services (SBU) told AFP that his country’s forces are behind the attack carried out with “naval drones”.
“Today’s attack on the Crimean bridge is a special operation by the SBU and the navy,” this source told AFP, specifying that “the bridge was attacked with naval drones.”
The pro-Russian governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov, had reported earlier this Monday that traffic along a bridge linking Crimea with Russia’s Krasnodar region had been interrupted as a result of an “emergency.”
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The bridge links Russia to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and serves as a vital link for transporting supplies to Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
In October 2022, it was damaged by a truck bomb in an attack that Moscow attributed to Ukraine. kyiv has denied being behind the attack.
Russia withdraws from grain agreement
The Joint Coordination Center established in Istanbul and from which the agreement for the export of cereals from Ukraine through the Black Sea is managed has been notified by Russia that it is withdrawing “immediately” from this initiative, confirmed to EFE a United Nations source in Geneva.
Russia and Ukraine reached this agreement a year ago with the mediation of the UN and Turkey, which in recent weeks multiplied their efforts to achieve a new extension of the agreement, which expired today after two extensions, in March and May last.
Russia recently expressed its intention to put an end to this arrangement, which has allowed the export of more than 32 tons of food from Ukraine to 45 countries on three continents.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that he had discussed and agreed with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the need to extend the agreement, amid criticism from Kremlin representatives that the part of the pact that was supposed to facilitate the export of their food and fertilizers had been systematically neglected.
The agreement was negotiated in the midst of the food crisis that had been unleashed by the interruption as a result of the war of the output of agricultural products -particularly cereals and certain derivatives, as well as fertilizers- from both countries, which are among the largest grain exporters in the world.
The initiative included cargo departures from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny/Pivdennyi, but Russia left out the latter a month ago.
At the same time, inspections of ships heading to Ukraine to load products had slowed down considerably, slowing down the pace of exports.
These inspections were carried out in particular by Russian agents to ensure that unauthorized merchandise was not transported.
The main demands that Russia considers unfulfilled are the reconnection of its agricultural bank, Rosseljozbank, to the SWIFT international banking system, the lifting of sanctions on spare parts for agricultural machinery, the unblocking of logistics and transport insurance, and the unfreezing of assets.
It also demanded that the operation of the ammonia pipeline that connects the Togliatti plant, in Russia, with the port of Odesa, in Ukraine, and which was bombed at the beginning of June, be resumed.
This infrastructure has not worked since the Russian aggression against its neighbor began.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP and EFE
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