Ukraine

KYIV, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The first big ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port has set sail since Moscow quit a deal in July to allow exports, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said on Friday, part of Kyiv's campaign to break Russia's de facto blockade.

The Aroyat "left the port Chornomorsk after loading 17,600 (metric tons of) Ukrainian wheat for Egypt," Oleksandr Kubrakov said on the X social media app, formerly Twitter.

He posted a photo of the ship at sea.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in a missile attack Friday that left a serviceman missing and the main building smoldering, according to military officials on both sides of the war and images from the scene in Crimea.

The Russian Defense Ministry initially said one servicemember was killed but then issued a subsequent statement saying he was missing following the attack in the port city of Sevastopol.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles and artillery pounded cities across Ukraine early Thursday, sparking fires, killing at least five people and trapping others under the rubble of destroyed buildings, authorities said, shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced Russia as a “terrorist state” at the United Nations.

KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Six people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, including a drone strike that set ablaze industrial warehouses and destroyed humanitarian aid supplies in the western city of Lviv, officials said.

They said one person was killed in Lviv, three were killed in an attack on the northeastern town of Kupiansk, and two people, including a policeman, were killed in shelling of the southern city of Kherson.

KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Evidence suggests a deadly explosion at a busy market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka this month was caused by an errant missile fired by Ukraine, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Ukraine has said the Sept. 6 blast, which killed at least 16 people, was caused by a Russian missile.

KYIV, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian government dismissed six deputy defence ministers on Monday following the appointment of a new defence minister earlier this month.

The government gave no reason for the dismissals, but such moves are common after a new minister's appointment. Those removed included Hanna Maliar, who frequently issues public updates on Russia's war on Ukraine.

KYIV, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the World Trade Organization over bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The appeal could be sent "in the near future", a senior official said, and followed a decision by the three countries bordering Ukraine to ban imports of the country's key export commodities.

Politico had earlier on Monday quoted Ukrainian Trade Representative Taras Kachka as saying in an interview that Kyiv planned to sue the three countries.

KIEV, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government dismissed all six deputy defense ministers and the state secretary of the Defense Ministry, said Taras Melnychuk, the cabinet's representative in the parliament, on Monday.

Deputy Defense Ministers Volodymyr Havrylov, Rostyslav Zamlynskiy, Hanna Malyar, Denys Sharapov, Andriy Shevchenko and Vitaliy Deynega, as well as State Secretary Kostyantyn Vashchenko have been ousted by the cabinet, Melnychuk wrote on Telegram.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Six Ukrainian deputy defense ministers were fired Monday following the dismissal two weeks ago of Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in a corruption scandal, officials said, as heavy fighting continued in the east.

Deputy defense ministers including Hanna Maliar, Vitalii Deyneha and Denys Sharapov, as well as the state secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Kostiantyn Vashchenko, were fired, according to the Telegram account of Taras Melnychuk, permanent representative of the Cabinet of Ministers.

KYIV, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Two cargo vessels were bound for Ukrainian ports on Saturday, becoming the first ships to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Ukraine last month announced a "humanitarian corridor" in the Black Sea to release ships trapped in its ports since the start of the war in February 2022 and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned a deal to let Kyiv export grain.