Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky marked the 500th day of Russia’s invasion on Saturday with a visit to Snake Island in the Black Sea, a symbol of the nation’s resistance, and a memorial service in Istanbul with senior Turkish clergy.
He earlier met there with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the future of the Black Sea grain initiative that is up for renewal this month.
Zelensky has been engaged in days of whirlwind diplomacy to Nato member countries ahead of next week’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, as he seeks a clearer path to joining the military alliance. Erdogan said on Friday Ukraine “deserves” membership.
US President Joe Biden told CNN, though, that a vote on Ukraine by Nato members would be premature.
“I don’t think it’s ready for membership in Nato,” Biden told CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria in the Oval Office on Friday, according to a partial transcript of an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday.
The US said it will supply cluster bombs to Ukraine to help ensure Kyiv has adequate firepower to press its counteroffensive, overruling concerns the weapons could lead to civilian casualties.
Human rights groups slammed the move. Biden called the decision “difficult” given the risk posed by cluster bombs, but said Russia has been raining the munitions on Ukraine for months.
Intense fighting is under way again around Bakhmut in Ukraine’s east, the UK defence ministry said. It added that Kyiv’s troops are showing “steady gains” while “Russian leadership almost certainly see it as politically unacceptable to concede” the city that’s been mostly razed over the past year.
Ukrainian forces have “trapped” some Russian soldiers in the city, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Saturday. Russia fired Iranian-made drones at central and southern Ukraine on Saturday, Ukraine’s air defence said.
Meanwhile, benchmark wheat futures fell for a second day on Friday as the outlook improved for supplies from key exporters France and Russia.
While the outlook for Ukraine’s grain shipments hangs in the balance, Russia’s wheat exports for the season that closed in June jumped to a record 46.6-million tonnes, and are likely to climb higher in the coming year, consultant SovEcon said.
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