French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for the first time in three months. They discussed the situation around the Zaporozhye NPP. As stated in the message of the Elysee Palace, Putin agreed that the IAEA mission traveled to the ZNPP from the side of the unoccupied Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin press service also reported on this conversation, emphasizing that it took place “at the initiative of the French side.”
“The systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military of the territory of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe,” Putin said in a conversation with Macron. Ukraine has repeatedly stated that nuclear power plants are being shelled by the Russian military.
Putin also recalled that Russia had invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to the colony in Yelenovka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed. Russia invited them back on July 31, but they never got there. But Yelenovka was visited by the pro-Putin actor Steven Seagal, the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky, who brought with him a “team of objective international experts” from Nicaragua and North Korea, and the author of the fake about Bucha.
The heads of the two countries also discussed an agreement to unblock the export of grain and other types of food from Ukrainian ports. “The President of Russia informed about the implementation of the “package” deal signed on July 22 in Istanbul on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and the export of Russian food products and fertilizers to world markets. Attention was drawn to the fact that there are still obstacles to the aforementioned Russian exports, which does not contribute to the solution of tasks related to ensuring global food security,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, since the beginning of the war, Russia has stolen and exported hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain. Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said that Turkey buys the stolen grain from Russia. Also, a significant part of the stolen grain was transported across the Mediterranean on bulk carriers flying Russian flags to Syria. From there, the grain can be smuggled to the countries of the Middle East.