High-ranking Russian official unexpectedly arrives in Donetsk, Central Europe "eager" for grain corridor

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman visits Donetsk, concerns about Kiev's grain corridor are some notable news about the situation in Ukraine.

(09.27) Phó Chủ tịch Hội đồng An ninh Nga Dmitry Medvedev (phải) thăm Donetsk. (Nguồn: TASS)

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev (right) visits Donetsk, Ukraine, September 26. (Source: TASS)

* Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council visits Donetsk: On September 26, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said he visited the army near the Donetsk region under the direction of President Vladimir Putin.

According to him, since the beginning of this year, “more than 325,000 people” have joined the Russian Armed Forces, higher than the figure of 280,000 he gave earlier this month.

Before Mr. Medvedev, a number of senior Russian officials visited the Ukrainian regions that have been under Russian control since February 2022. Among them, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to the port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine in March 2023.

* Russia: No prospect of resolving Ukraine crisis: On September 26, speaking at the Russia-Egypt security consultations in Cairo, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that Moscow supports the views of Egypt and a number of other African countries on the role of mediation in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

However, Mr. Patrushev also emphasized: "There is currently no prospect for such a solution."

Thanking his Egyptian partners for their balanced stance on the conflict in Ukraine, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council said: "We welcome Cairo's refusal to supply weapons to Kiev. At the same time, we understand that such a decision was made despite real pressure from the United States and Europe."

In addition, according to Mr. Patrushev, Russia hopes to receive further support for Moscow's position at the United Nations and other international forums.

* Central Europe urges EU to review Ukraine grain corridor: Agriculture ministry officials from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia on September 26 called on the European Union (EU) to thoroughly review the “solidarity corridor” through which Ukraine’s grain travels to third countries. They said some of the transported grain remains in countries like Poland and harms local farmers because of much lower prices.

“We urge the European Commission to examine the effectiveness of the ‘solidarity corridors’ more actively,” Czech Agriculture Minister Marek Vyborny told reporters. “Our common interest is to help get Ukrainian grain to ideally non-EU countries and we need really effective corridors for that.”

To prevent grain leakage during transport, the EU could impose refundable deposits on dealers, who would receive the deposits back when the grain leaves ports in Poland and the Baltic region for markets outside the EU, Mr. Vyborny also confirmed.

The four countries also want the EU to approve the proposed steps before member states' agriculture ministers meet in Luxembourg next month.

The “Solidarity Corridors” are road and river routes created by the EU to facilitate the export of Ukrainian agricultural products to Europe.

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