The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal writes about the consequences of a Russian missile attack on the Odesa port immediately after the signing of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain. Probably, writes the panel, Russia signed the agreement out of fear that otherwise the obligation to accompany Ukrainian grain would be assumed by the United States. From the agreement, Russia will receive its benefits ― in particular, the opportunity to export its products and fertilizers to global markets, and therefore have additional funds to finance the war. Although UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Saturdayʼs strike, there is little hope that Russia will face any real consequences. Ukraine cannot terminate the agreement because it wants to sell grain, and also because otherwise Putin will have another reason to blame Kyiv for the food disaster. Another conclusion of the publication is that Russia still plans to gain control over the south of Ukraine, including Odesa, which will open a corridor to the conquest of Moldova. Therefore, the editorial board writes, the West should provide Ukraine with more weapons, because the fastest way to peace is to convince Russia that the price of war will increase and that Moscow wonʼt be able to hold out longer than the West.
Forbes describes how one Ukrainian woman from the USA was able to organize more than 150 tons of humanitarian aid for Ukraine. The way volunteers from all over the world help Ukraine deserves to go down in history as an example of high organization and solidarity, the publication writes. A lot was written and talked about the military side of the events around Ukraine: Turkish Bayraktar drones, American HIMARS systems, etc. Forbes, on the other hand, focused the article on the evolution of humanitarian support, which was not covered so widely. The publication investigated the experience of the Revival Foundation, which was founded by Aksenia Krupenko, a Ukrainian living in the USA. The foundation quickly organized the collection of humanitarian aid in America, but was faced with the high cost of prompt delivery of goods to Ukraine. This is where Ukrposhta, Ukrainian state postal operator, came in handy, having established a partnership with the charter air carrier Windrose to export and import postal items and goods through Poland, thus providing support to small and medium-sized exporters. The airline, together with the logistics firm DNIPRO.LLC, agreed to pack and transport the aid four times cheaper than commercial carriers. In Poland, the cargo is handed over to Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrainian state railways operator, which transports the humanitarian Revival Foundation around Ukraine at the expense of Ukrposhta. It is interesting that the costs of air transportation were covered by the former Minister of Defense of Georgia, Davit Kezerashvili. The article focuses on the social connections and arrangements that allowed this case to become so successful. While large humanitarian organizations were setting up bureaucratic processes, Krupenko sent 13 planes to Ukraine with more than 150 tons of aid.
The German Der Spiegel writes about the fate of the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC), which were caught in the crossfire after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine. The publication tells about Petro Pavlenko, a priest of one of the churches of Gostomel, who buried the city residents killed by the Russians in the frozen ground of the church yard, but now he refuses to leave the UOC and join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). According to some believers, remaining in the UOC means recognizing the spiritual leadership of the Russian Patriarch Kirill, who openly justifies and even encourages the Russian war in Ukraine. Pavlenko, on the other hand, says that he does not remember the Kirill from last winter and is a true patriot of Ukraine, and also does not consider the leadership of the OCU and its sacraments to be authentic. Although the UOC declared its independence from Moscow at the end of May, it is still associated with the Kremlin authorities. The publication writes that pro-Russian positions are more widespread among the clergy and believers of the UOC. Former UOC priest Georgy Kovalenko says that now the church is a mixture of patriots, lovers of the "Russian world" and supporters of the revival of the Russian empire. Since the beginning of the war, writes Der Spiegel, about 500 churches have switched from the UOC to the OCU. Most of them are in rural communities. Those churches that remain under the wing of the UOC are afraid of pressure and repression: some local councils in Ukraine have already spoken about banning the UOC. The German expert in theology Elsner, with whom the publication spoke, believes that inciting enmity against the UOC is unreasonable, because it helps Putin promote the narrative of "saving the Orthodox from oppression" in Ukraine with the help of his "special operation".