National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US believes North Korea is “trying to make it look like they are being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa”. He declined to provide a specific estimate of the amount of munitions being sent to bolster the Russian effort. Kirby said North Korea was “covertly supplying” the munitions to Russia, but that “we are still monitoring it to determine if the shipments have actually been received.” Kirby insisted that the North Korean missions “are not going to change the course of the war,” citing Western efforts to resupply the Ukrainian military. The White House would not specify how it would be transported or whether the US or other nations would attempt to intercept the shipments to Russia.
New deaths reported, widespread outages in Ukraine
In Ukraine on Wednesday, thousands of homes in the Kiev region and elsewhere remained without power, officials said, as Russian drone and artillery strikes continued to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Kyiv Region Governor Oleksii Kukeba said 16,000 homes were left without electricity and drones attacked energy facilities in the Cherkasy region south of the capital, causing blackouts. Workers repair a damaged railway bridge as Russia’s offensive continues in Ukraine, in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday. (Vyacheslav Madievsky/Reuters) Although power and water have been restored in the city of Kiev, Kuleba did not rule out the possibility of power outages lasting “weeks” if Russian forces continue to hit energy facilities there. In a post on Telegram, he accused Russian forces of trying to provoke a serious humanitarian crisis. Power outages were also reported in the southern cities of Nikopol and Chervonohryhorivka after “a large-scale drone attack,” Dnipropetrovsk governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. The two cities are across the Dnipro River from the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility. Russia and Ukraine have for months traded blame for bombings at and around the plant that the UN nuclear watchdog warned could trigger a radiation emergency. Ongoing Russian shelling of nine areas in southern and eastern Ukraine killed at least four civilians and injured 17 others between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Shelling also hit towns and villages recaptured by Ukraine last month in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, wounding seven people.
Grains to keep sending
A Russian fire damaged a hospital and apartment buildings in the city of Toretsk in the Donetsk region. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko said on Wednesday that Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to battle for control of the towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, both key targets of a Russian offensive in the region. In southern Ukraine, authorities installed by Russia in the occupied Kherson region moved civilians about 90 kilometers away into Russian territory in anticipation of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the provincial capital of the same name. Ships, including those carrying grain from Ukraine and awaiting inspections, are seen anchored off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Diplomatic efforts salvaged a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain and other goods to reach world markets, with Russia saying on Wednesday it would honor the deal. Russia threatened to end the deal over the weekend, citing allegations of a Ukrainian drone attack against its Black Sea fleet in Crimea. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attack, which some Ukrainian officials blamed on Russian soldiers mishandling their own weapons. The UN and Turkey brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to ensure that Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia receive grain and other food from the Black Sea region during its eight-month war. of Russia in Ukraine. WATCHES | Young refugee saw injury, death in his circle in Ukraine:
The young Ukrainian who escaped to Canada recounts the process of leaving Bucha
Denis, whose last name is being protected by the CBC, says his friend in Ukraine helped him connect with his new host family in Canada. Ukraine and Russia are major global exporters of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to developing countries where many already struggle with hunger. The loss of those supplies ahead of the grain deal pushed up global food prices and helped push tens of millions into poverty, along with rising energy costs. The grain deal has reduced global food prices by about 15 percent since their peak in March, according to the UN.
