War Ukraine – Russia, last minute | Washington announces new military aid to kyiv to strengthen anti-aircraft and anti-tank defenses
The announcement of a new tranche of US aid to Ukraine worth about $400 million comes amid a counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military, which is trying to repel Russian forces in the east and south of the country.
Following the withdrawal in mid-July of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian cereals, Russia has begun to bomb the port areas of the Odesa region, damaging the infrastructure for the storage and export of grain.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, which is 518 days old, the United States, which has led an international coalition in support of Ukraine, has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to meet at the Russia-Africa summit with the leaders of 49 African countries, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, to show that despite the Ukraine war and the end of the grain deal, he has partners and supports.
A group of Ukrainian officials look worriedly at the cracks in the back wall of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, a splendid building white from a Russian bombing raid on this great port city.
“The threat is that the part where the missile fell is moving,” the mayor, Gennady Troukhanov, explained to Afp, in front of the partially destroyed Orthodox cathedral on Saturday night.
“We will start tearing down the wall immediately. We fear that it will drag down the entire building when it falls,” he added, addressing Metropolitan Agafanguel, an 84-year-old Orthodox religious responsible for the diocese.
Odessa, a Black Sea port – whose historic center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site earlier this year – had remained relatively safe from hostilities after the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
After Russia withdrew a deal on Ukrainian grain exports in mid-month, it began shelling the city's port areas, also damaging some of the older buildings.
“We have never seen attacks like this,” confirms the mayor.
Built over 200 years ago and destroyed by the Soviets in 1936, the Transfiguration Cathedral was rebuilt in the early 2000s thanks to donations.. It was consecrated in 2010 by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill.
The mayor of the city asked the orthodox metropolitan for authorization to proceed with a partial demolition of the building.
“Explain to the parishioners that it's dangerous and they shouldn't be here,” he told her.. “It's a tragedy