WAR IN UKRAINE: August 2, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 160
The Sierra Leone-flagged bulk carrier, Razoni, set sail from here in Odesa Monday morning with 26,500 tonnes of corn headed to Lebanon via Istanbul. It was the first such vessel to set sail under a complex agreement between Ukraine and Russia brokered by the UN and Turkey. As of late Monday the vessel was tracked off the coast of Romania. If all goes well, 16 more ships will follow from three Black Sea ports in Ukraine, moving as much as 580,000 tonnes of grain and other agricultural products. With some 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in Ukrainian silos it could take as many as 500 vessels over the next 3-4 months to clear the backlog. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described Monday as a "day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa."
The United States announced a new $550 million package of military assistance for Ukraine, including ammunition for rocket launchers and artillery guns that Ukrainian military officials say have been critical in the fight to repel Russian troops and to strike their supply lines - RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the government has decided on the mandatory evacuation of people in the eastern Donetsk region.
The U.S. fast food chain, McDonald’s, won’t re-open it’s outlets in Ukraine in August as rumoured, Ukrainian media reporting citing a spokesperson. The fast food chain closed all its 108 outlets in Ukraine in Feb. The closure caught many people here off guard as smaller chains such as KFC, Dominos and Ukraine brands stayed open through the war
The world is one misstep from devastating nuclear war and in peril not seen since the Cold War, the UN Secretary General has warned. Russia was widely accused of escalating tensions when days after his invasion of Ukraine in February, President Vladimir Putin put Russia's substantial nuclear forces on high alert. Today, some 13,000 nuclear weapons are thought to remain in service in the arsenals of the nine nuclear-armed states - far lower than the estimated 60,000 stockpiled during the peak of the mid-1980s - BBC
‘You Need To Know How To Shoot': Lviv Students Are Taught The ABCs Of Self-Defense. A youth creativity center in Ukraine's western city of Lviv is having summer classes to teach high-school students basic self-defense, weapons handling, and shooting. The mayor’s office plans to introduce similar classes and first aid as part of the regular school curriculum next year. Watch the RFE/RL report here