As analysts warned that Russia was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to fend off a Ukrainian counteroffensive, six more ships carrying agricultural cargo that had been delayed by the conflict in Ukraine were given permission to leave the country’s Black Sea coast on Sunday.
Additionally, Russia and Ukraine both claimed responsibility for shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
According to the Joint Coordination Center, which manages a global agreement aimed at getting almost 20 million tons of grain out of Ukraine to feed millions suffering hungry in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia, the laden boats were given the all-clear to leave Chornomorsk and Odesa.
A third-generation farmer named Yurri Yalovchuk told CBS News that he had 1,000 tons of barley that were supposed to be transported out in the spring.
It is now suitable for poultry feed and unfit for human consumption.
Last month, agreements were signed between Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations to build a 111-nautical-mile sea corridor that would permit cargo ships to safely leave ports that the Russian military had blockaded and pass through waters that the Ukrainian military had mined.
Since the first ship sailed on August 1, implementation of the agreement, which is in force for four months, has moved slowly.
Over 219,000 tons of grain were being transported by four of the carriers that were permitted to depart Ukraine on Sunday.
According to the Joint Coordination Center, the fifth was transporting more than 6,600 tons of sunflower oil and the sixth, 11,000 tons of soy.
According to the Center, three additional cargo ships that departed on Friday passed their inspections and were given permission on Sunday to travel through Turkey’s Bosporus Strait on their way to their final destinations.
However, a Lebanese Cabinet official and the Ukraine Embassy reported that the ship whose departure from Ukraine as the first under the grain exports agreement was celebrated last Monday had its planned arrival in Lebanon postponed till Sunday.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the delay.
A grain export agreement was first met with skepticism by Ukrainian authorities, who expressed concerns that Moscow might attempt to take advantage of maritime traffic to amass soldiers offshore or launch long-range missiles from the Black Sea, as it has often done throughout the conflict.
According to the agreements, ships must leave Ukraine with military protection and must pass inspections to ensure that they are carrying only grain, fertilizer, or food and no other goods. Ships carrying goods are inspected upon arrival to make sure no weapons are on board.
The Russian invasion, which began on February 24, “is about to enter a new phase,” according to a weekend analysis by the British Defense Ministry.
During this phase, fighting will move to a roughly 350-kilometer (217-mile) front line that runs from close to the city of Zaporizhzhia to Russian-occupied Kherson.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which was attacked late on Saturday, is located in that region. Both sides blamed the other for the assault.
Three radiation monitors near the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel were destroyed by Russian shelling, according to Energoatom, the operator of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant, and one worker was also hurt.
According to Russian news outlets quoting the separatist-controlled plant’s management, Ukrainian soldiers launched those munitions.
The power plant has been under Russian control for some months.
According to Energoatom, Russian soldiers there sought refuge in bunkers prior to the attack on Saturday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, has issued a serious health and environmental hazard assessment about the operation of the facility and the nearby fighting.
Russia has focused its efforts throughout the past four months of the conflict on taking control of the Donbas area in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been in charge of some territory as self-declared republics for eight years.
While mounting missile and rocket assaults to restrict the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere, Russian troops have gradually advanced in the area.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research tank, the Russians “are continuing to gather substantial amounts of military materiel” in a town across the Dnieper River from Russian-held Kherson.
It said, citing local Ukrainian authorities, that it looked that the preparations were made to protect the city’s supply channels and to set up defensive positions along the river’s left bank.
Early in the conflict, Kherson was under Russian control, but Ukrainian authorities have pledged to reclaim it.
The main port in Ukraine, Odesa, is just 227 kilometers away, so if the situation there worsens, it may have an impact on the global grain trade.
Even closer to Odesa is the city of Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding hub that Russian troops often shell.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, said that an industrial site on the outskirts of the regional capital came under fire early on Sunday.
According to Serhiy Haidai, the regional governor, five people were murdered during the course of the previous day as a result of Russian and rebel fire on cities in the Donetsk region, the portion of Donbas that is still under Ukrainian control.
He has regularly pushed citizens to go along with Ukrainian government representatives.