It is the 153rd day of the war in Ukraine. After the attack on Odessa, just after the much-needed wheat deal, Russian missiles rained down again on the port city on the Black Sea, just before dawn, but this does not seem to prevent the start of operations for the export of Ukrainian wheat. A center for the coordination of corridors in the Black Sea will open today in Istanbul with representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations to launch the plan agreed between the parties on 22 July.
The energy ministers of the 27 countries of the European Union have reached a political agreement on reducing gas demand for next winter. The Minister for Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, explained that “by the beginning of winter we will be almost independent from Russian supplies and for Italy the reductions are on a part that is now marginal”. Meanwhile, the rise in the price of gas continues: in Amsterdam it jumped to € 200.40 per megawatt hour and then fell back to € 199, with an increase of 12.6%, to the levels of the beginning of last March.
Meanwhile, Russia is sending the International Space Station into early retirement: Moscow has announced its “irrevocable decision” to abandon collaboration with the ISS project starting from 2024, dismantling another symbol of the end of the Cold War after almost three decades.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will fly to Sochi, Russia on August 5, where he will meet Putin in the second face-to-face between the two leaders since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.
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00.01 – The president of Georgia accuses: the Russians annex our territories
The president of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili, denounced Russian attempts to annex territories in the breakaway region of Abkhazia. The pro-Russian authorities have given Moscow an official residence in Bichvinta on the Black Sea.
The news and updates for Tuesday 26 July