Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday discussed the "functioning" of a sea corridor set up by Kyiv for safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal.
Their phone call came on the eve of a summit in Russia between President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wants to revive the grain deal.
"We discussed ways to ensure the functioning of the grain corridor and enhance the security of the Odesa region," Zelensky said on social media.
Zelensky also thanked Macron for France's "crucial military aid" to Kyiv and said the pair "discussed the next packages."
Ukraine this week said four more ships had gone through its temporary maritime corridor in the Black Sea, which it had set up last month to ensure safe navigation.
Erdogan is due to meet Putin in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi on Monday, amid hopes for the revival of the deal.
I had a focused call with @EmmanuelMacron.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 3, 2023
I thanked France for its support, including crucial military aid. We discussed the next packages.
We agreed that France and French companies will take part in Ukraine’s upcoming Defense Industries Forum.
We also discussed ways to…
'Unjustified' attacks
Following the collapse in July of the United Nations-brokered deal, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine's southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure that are vital for the shipment of grain.
On Sunday, Moscow hit a Danube port on the border with NATO member Romania in an attack condemned by Bucharest.
Ukraine said Russia used Iranian-made Shahed drones, saying it downed 22 of them.
Kyiv also said that at least two people were wounded in attacks on "civilian industrial" infrastructure.
The Russian army said it had targeted "fuel storage" facilities in the Ukrainian port of Reni, which lies on the Danube river that separates Ukraine from Romania.
Reni – which also lies close to Moldova – is a sea and river port and important transport hub.
Bucharest's defence ministry said the attacks were "unjustified and in deep contradiction with the rules of international humanitarian law".
It also stressed that the Moscow drone attacks did not "generate any direct military threat to the national territory or territorial waters of Romania."
Neighbouring Moldova called the attack "brutal."
"Russia must be held accountable for every piece of infrastructure destroyed," Chisinau's pro-EU President Maia Sandu said on social media.
'Everything is ahead of us'
The Odesa region attacks came as Kyiv this week reported some successes on the southern front of its counteroffensive.
On Wednesday, Kyiv said it had recaptured the village of Robotyne, calling it a strategic victory that would pave the way for its forces to push deeper into Russian positions towards Moscow-annexed Crimea.
General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, leading the southern counteroffensive, told The Guardian newspaper this weekend that Kyiv's army has made an important breakthrough by breaching Russian lines near Zaporizhzhia.
"We are now between the first and second defensive lines," Tarnavskiy – who led Ukrainian troops to liberate the southern city of Kherson – told the UK paper.
Heavily mined territory had slowed Ukrainian troops, saying that sappers had cleaned a route by foot and at night.
The paper quoted him as saying that Kyiv's forces are now back on vehicles and that Russia has redeployed troops to the area.
"But sooner or later, the Russians will run out of all the best soldiers," Tarnavskiy said.
"Everything is ahead of us."
He admitted difficult losses for Kyiv, saying that "we are losing the strongest and best."
(with newswires)
