"Two for two" prisoner swap: basketball star and ex-soldier for arms dealer and zoo killer?
Created: 08/08/2022, 10:00 am
By: Markus Hofstetter
Grain exports from Ukraine are starting, more ships are leaving the country.
Meanwhile, two celebrities are causing a stir, both positive and negative.
The news ticker.
Grain exports
from
Ukraine
: Shipping corridor through the Russian blockade is no longer a one-way street.
US basketball player sentenced
in Russia
: Diplomat expects Britney Griner to be released
Oscar winner
in
Kiev
: Jessica Chastain supports Ukraine while Roger Waters causes dissatisfaction.
This
news ticker
on the
negotiations
in the Ukraine war is constantly updated.
Munich - After the end of the Russian naval blockade, a cargo ship has docked in a Ukrainian port for the first time.
"The bulk carrier Fulmar S has arrived at the port of Chornomorsk and is ready for loading," announced the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure on its Telegram channel.
Grain exports from Ukraine: Eight ships have left the port so far
So far, eight ships carrying grain have left Ukrainian ports since the beginning of August.
They were among dozens of freighters that had been stranded there since the war began in February because of the Russian naval blockade and the Ukrainian military's mining of its own ports.
With the arrival of the Fulmar S, the grain corridor now has an "entrance and exit," explained Infrastructure Minister Olexander Kubrakow.
Meanwhile, Lebanon is still waiting for the first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain.
The freighter "Razoni" left the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa last Monday.
The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope
View photo gallery
US citizens detained in Russia: 'two for two' exchange expected
Former US diplomat Bill Richardson is confident that a prisoner swap can be negotiated with Russia to free basketball player Brittney Griner, who has been sentenced to nine years in prison for drug smuggling.
"I'm optimistic," the former US ambassador to the United Nations said on ABC
on Sunday
.
"I think she will be released.
I think she's pursuing the right strategy with regret."
A Russian court has sentenced US basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for illegal drug possession.
© Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Reuters/AP/dpa
Although Richardson emphasized that he was only indirectly involved in possible negotiations, he appeared to be very well informed.
In his own words, he expects a “two for two” prisoner exchange to free former US soldier Paul Whelan, who is being held in Russia.
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According to media reports, Griner and Whelan could be exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
It is not yet clear who the second Russian could be.
According to US information, Russia had demanded the release of Russian Vadim K., who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for the Tiergarten murder.
Celebrities in the Ukraine War: Roger Waters versus Jessica Chastain
Meanwhile, Oscar winner Jessica Chastain visited a children's hospital in Kyiv on Sunday (August 7) and later the Kiev suburb of Irpin, which became known for Russian war crimes.
In the evening, like other Hollywood greats, she was received by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US actress Jessica Chastain met in Kyiv.
(7 August 2022) © Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/dpa/picture alliance/AP
Meanwhile, another show size caused displeasure.
British musician Roger Waters, ex-Pink Floyd frontman, provoked outrage in Kyiv and applause in Moscow with comments on the Russian war of aggression.
At the beginning of the war he had described the Russian attack as an act of a gangster, but now he blamed US President Joe Biden, which pleased Russia's ex-President Dmitry Medvedev.
“There are still adequate people in the West.
Pink Floyd forever,” he wrote on his page on the vkontakte social network.
