Kyiv
\nUkraine on Wednesday said it had restarted operations at its blockaded Black Sea ports as it moved closer to resuming grain exports with the opening of a coordination centre to oversee a UN-backed deal.
\nProgress towards fulfilling the landmark agreement came as Kyiv\u2019s artillery struck a key bridge in Moscow-controlled territory in south Ukraine, damaging an important supply route as Ukrainian forces look to wrest back the Kherson region.
\nGerman authorities said Russia\u2019s state energy giant Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to about 20 percent of capacity in a move decried in the EU as revenge for Western sanctions over the invasion.
\nUkraine and Russia last week agreed a plan with the help of Turkey and the United Nations to allow grain stranded by Moscow\u2019s naval blockade to be exported from three ports.
\nKyiv has said it hopes to begin sending out the first of millions of tonnes of grain \u201cthis week\u201d despite a missile strike by Russia over the weekend on the port in Odessa.
\nUkraine\u2019s navy said \u201cwork has resumed\u201d at the export hubs to prepare for ships to be escorted through the mine-infested waters to reach world markets.
\nAs part of the deal, a coordination centre involving Ukrainian and Russian representatives opened in Istanbul to monitor the safe passage for shipping along established routes and oversee inspections for banned weapons.
\nThe blockage of deliveries from two of the world\u2019s biggest grain exporters has contributed to a spike in prices that has made food imports prohibitively expensive for some of the world\u2019s poorest countries.
\nFightig has continued to rage on the ground in Ukraine despite the push to get the grain out, and Kyiv struck back by hitting the vital Antonivskiy bridge over the Dnipro river in a move that threatens to cut supply lines to Russian troops.
\nUkraine\u2019s Defence Ministry said on Twitter the strikes on bridges over the Dnipro created an \u201cimpossible dilemma\u201d for Russia: \u201cretreat or be annihilated by the Ukrainian army\u201d.
\nKirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-installed regional administration in Kherson, confirmed the bridge had been hit overnight and traffic had been halted.
\nBut he sought to downplay the damage, insisting that the attack would not affect the outcome of the hostilities \u201cin any way\u201d.
\nUkrainian forces in recent weeks have been clawing back territory in the Kherson region, which fell to Russian forces easily and early after their invasion launched on February 24.
\nTheir counter-offensive, supported by Western-supplied long-range artillery, has seen its forces push closer to Kherson city, which had a pre-war population of under 300,000 people.
\nRussian forces \u201cshould leave Kherson while it is still possible. There may not be a third warning,\u201d Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Twitter after the attack.
\nMeanwhile the leader of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine called on Moscow to conquer key cities across the country.
\n\u201cToday the time has come to liberate Russian cities, founded by Russians: Kyiv, Chernigiv, Poltava, Odessa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk,\u201d Denis Pushilin said on Telegram.
\nRussia sought to capture the capital Kyiv in the early days of its invasion but later retreated, focussing its efforts on Ukraine\u2019s east Donbas region.
\nIn the battered Donetsk region \u2014 part of the Donbas \u2014 AFP journalists saw a house hit in an intense artillery exchange around the ravaged frontline city of Bakhmut.
\nA worker was inside the courtyard when the shell hit and was saved by emergency rescuers who cut a hole in a steel fence using an axe.
\n\u201cI heard a whistle. And I don\u2019t remember anything. It exploded and I was thrown into the barn by the explosion,\u201d 51-year-old Roman told AFP.
\nUkraine\u2019s emergency services said that Russian artillery had hit a hotel in Bakhmut, leaving two people dead and five injured.
\n\u2013 Gas \u2018power play\u2019 \u2013
\nDeepening an energy crisis in Europe sparked by the war, Germany\u2019s energy regulator said gas flows via the key Nord Stream pipeline had dropped to 20 percent of capacity on Wednesday from 40 percent.
\nEU states have rejected Gazprom\u2019s claims of technical problems and accuse the Kremlin of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine.
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed EU sanctions for the limited supply.
\n\u201cTechnical pumping capacities are down, more restricted. Why? Because the process of maintaining technical devices is made extremely difficult by the sanctions adopted by Europe,\u201d Peskov said.
\nBut Berlin has dismissed the explanation and government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann called the reductions a \u201cpower play\u201d by Moscow.
\nThe European Union has been bracing for the cutbacks and on Tuesday agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent this winter to break its dependence on Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyiv Ukraine on Wednesday said it had restarted operations at its blockaded Black Sea ports as it moved closer to resuming grain exports with the opening of a coordination centre to oversee a UN-backed deal. Progress towards fulfilling the landmark agreement came as Kyiv\u2019s artillery struck a key bridge in Moscow-controlled territory in south Ukraine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n