Ukraine Asks Lebanon to Bar Syrian Ship Carrying 'Stolen' Corn from Docking
Ukrainian officials on Thursday asked Lebanon to bar a Syrian state-owned cargo ship carrying allegedly stolen Ukrainian grain from docking in Lebanon's Tripoli port, according to the Ukrainian embassy and a diplomatic note seen by Reuters.The Ukrainian mission said in comments to Reuters that the Finikia was transporting 6,000 metric tons of corn, which it considered stolen, from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol.In the note to Lebanon's ministries of transport, finance and economy, as well as the customs directorate, the embassy said the corn had been "stolen from storage units in the Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions".It said…
Russian Warship's Syrian Role Clarified
A Russian amphibious landing ship, the Caesar Kunikov left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol for what a Black Sea Fleet officer said was a routine exercise at a training base, in response to media reports earlier this week that it could be heading for Syria. Some Ukrainian media sources also reported, referring to CNN and other western media, that another large amphibious ship from the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Nikolai Filchenkov, was heading for the Syrian port of Tartus carrying weapons and marines to defend Russia’s naval facility. Last week, U.S.