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The U.N. coordinator for the Ukraine Black Sea grain deal said he expects loaded ships to depart Ukrainian ports on Thursday, Reuters reported.
"Exports of grain and foodstuffs from #Ukraine️ need to continue. Although no movements of vessels are planned for 2 November under the #BlackSeaGrainInitiative, we expect loaded ships to sail on Thursday," U.N. coordinator Amir Abdulla posted on Twitter.
Eight ships with agricultural products were expected to pass through the corridor on Thursday, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter.
In his nightly video message Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a long-term defense is needed for Ukraine's grain export corridor and the world must respond firmly to any Russian attempts to disrupt it.
Zelenskyy said ships were moving out of Ukrainian ports with cargoes thanks to the work of Turkey and the United Nations, the two main brokers of the July 22 grain export agreement.
"But a reliable and long-term defense is needed for the grain corridor," he said.
"Russia must clearly be made aware that it will receive a tough response from the world to any steps to disrupt our food exports," Zelenskyy said. "At issue here clearly are the lives of tens of millions of people."
Russian fertilizer producer Uralchem-Uralkali plans to send the first humanitarian supply of fertilizer from a European Union port to Malawi, the TASS news agency quoted the company as saying on Tuesday.
Uralchem is ready to supply in total 240,000 metric tons of its fertilizers currently blocked in EU warehouses to Africa for free, TASS reported.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the founder of the Wagner private military group, has praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a strong and confident leader who should not be underestimated, according to Reuters.
His comments underlined Prigozhin's rising public profile and growing confidence in speaking out on sensitive issues around the war in Ukraine in defiance of the standard Moscow line.
"Although he is the president of a country hostile to Russia at the moment, Zelenskyy is a strong, confident, pragmatic and nice guy," Prigozhin said in a statement shared on the Vkontatke social media platform by the press service of his Concord catering firm.
"Don't underestimate him," Prigozhin said in a second statement, after he was asked why he was heaping praise on a man that Moscow has largely criticized, belittled and attacked since he came to power in 2019.
Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya said Prigozhin was voicing a view far removed from Putin's that others in the ruling elite might not dare to express. "Prigozhin dared. He thinks he has a right and he thinks it wouldn't anger Putin," she said.
The White House said Tuesday Iran was willingly taking part in killing Ukrainians by providing drones to Russia for the war, and voiced concern it would also ship missiles to Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported.
By arming the Russians, the Iranian regime "is involved in killing innocent Ukrainians," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
"At its core, this is a regime in Tehran that is openly and willingly making themselves an accomplice to the murder of innocent Ukrainian people on Ukrainian soil."
Kirby noted Iran's provision of attack drones to Russia, which have been deployed in recent weeks to damage Ukraine infrastructure.
But he would not confirm reports that Tehran could also send short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.
"We remain concerned about the potential of Iran to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles," Kirby told reporters.
"We haven't seen that bear out, but it's a concern that we have," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday that he wanted "real guarantees" from Kyiv before it potentially rejoined the grain deal, Agence France-Presse reported.
Putin told Erdogan that Russia sought "real guarantees from Kyiv about the strict observance of the Istanbul agreement, in particular about not using the humanitarian corridor for military purposes," according to a statement from the Kremlin.
Putin told Erdogan "it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the incident" against the Black Sea fleet.
"Only after that will it be possible to consider the question of resuming work" within the deal, the Kremlin statement said, referring to both the investigation and guarantees it is seeking.