Canada will deliver nearly five thousand assault rifles and ammunition to Ukraine in the coming weeks, according to the Canadian Ministry of Defence.
“The delivery of the small arms and ammunition aid package announced in April is on schedule. Machine guns, assault rifles, cleaning kits and magazines have already been delivered to Ukraine, and one million rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition and 4,800 assault rifles should arrive in the coming weeks,” the report said.
According to the Canadian Ministry of Defence, all 21,000 small arms and 2.4 million rounds of ammunition planned for delivery are expected to be in Ukraine by summer.
“Canada’s support for Ukraine is unwavering. When I travel across Canada, I see Ukrainian flags on homes, small businesses and cars – because Canadians understand that Ukraine’s fight for self-defence is also a fight for sovereignty, freedom and independence,” said Canadian National Defence Minister Anita Anand, quoted by the ministry’s press office
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he had won the presidential election.
“Our nation has made a choice and once again empowered us to lead the country for another five years,” Erdogan said, addressing his supporters at a rally.
He thanked all Turkish citizens who voted for him.
The presidential election in Turkey is already being called the main election of 2023 in the world. The pre-election economic and political situation in Turkey was analyzed by the Club of Experts research center, watch the video with the Club’s experts here:
The presidential election in Turkey is already being called the main election of 2023 in the world. The pre-election economic and political situation in Turkey was analyzed by the research center of the Club of Experts, watch the video with the Club’s experts here:
On May 28, the second round of presidential elections is taking place in Turkey. After the first round, none of the candidates received more than 50% of the votes, which would guarantee victory and election as president of this country. The incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the united opposition are fighting for this post.
Polling stations started working at 8:00 local time and will be open until 17:00. There are 191,885 ballot boxes in 973 constituencies and 1,094 district election commissions across the country. In total, more than 60 million citizens of the country are expected to take part.
Abroad, 3.5 million Turkish citizens registered there could cast their votes for the new president. Election commissions worked in 73 countries, and voting in foreign representations ended on May 24. The ballot boxes from abroad were delivered to Ankara by air and diplomatic mail. They will be opened together with other ballot boxes after voting is over.
Turkey’s presidential election has already been called the world’s most important election of 2023. The analysis of the pre-election economic and political situation in Turkey was carried out by the Club of Experts Research Center, see the video of the Club’s experts at the link:
The two presidential candidates in Turkey visited polling stations almost simultaneously and voted in the second round of presidential elections.
According to the Turkish press, President Recep Erdoğan voted at a polling station in the Asian part of Istanbul, while his opponent Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu voted in Ankara.
Polling stations opened in Turkey at 08:00 am local time (the same time as Kiev), they will close at 17:00, after which the ban on the publication of voting data will be lifted.
Earlier, the “Club of Experts” analyzed the prospects of candidates in the second round of elections. You can view the video here:
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An agreement on the safe export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports has not been renewed in full, after Russia said it had been extended, the United Nations said Friday, May 26, Reuters reported.
“The agreement allowing safe exports of grain and fertilizers from Ukrainian Black Sea ports has not yet resumed in full, the United Nations said on Friday, after Russia decided last week to extend it,” it said.
The pact, called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July with Russia and Ukraine to alleviate a global food crisis exacerbated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, covers three ports, but since April 29, no ships have been allowed to call at the Yuzhny port, the UN said.
The UN and Turkey are “working closely with other parties to restore full operations … and remove all obstacles that impede operations and limit the scope of the Initiative,” the UN said in a statement.
Ukrainian agrarians last week sowed 585.2 thousand hectares of grain and leguminous crops, compared to 1 million 105.5 thousand hectares last week and 1267.2 thousand hectares a week earlier, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.
According to it, May 25, the area under spring grain and leguminous crops reached 5.278 million hectares, or about 96.7% of the planned.
Spring sown areas are still lower than last year, when as of May 26 they reached 5.905 million hectares, but the lag has decreased again: 267.1 thousand hectares were sown during the same week in 2022.
The lag is mainly formed due to the most popular crops – corn and spring barley. They were sown by 16.4% and 17.8% less than last year, amounting to 3.266 and 759.6 thousand hectares respectively. As for corn, they have already surpassed the forecast of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy in 3.618 million hectares, while the barley is noticeably lower than the expected 1.041 million hectares.
At the same time, the area under other crops is already higher than a year ago. This concerns spring wheat – 261.9 thousand hectares (38.4%), buckwheat – 83.1 thousand hectares (44.0%), millet – 46.1 thousand hectares (11.6%) and pea – 135.6 thousand hectares (7.7%).
As it was noted by the Ministry of agrarian policy, the leaders in field work with grains and legumes this week were agrarians of the northernmost Chernigiv region – 94.5 thousand hectares, and the most sown spring crops in Poltava region – 626 thousand hectares.
According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, sunflowers covered 4.616 million hectares, which is already 8.2% more than last year’s figure, but still significantly below the expectations of 5.641 million hectares. Most of all this oilseed crops are planted in Kirovograd region – 576 thousand hectares.
Sown areas under sugar beet, on the contrary, exceeded the forecast of 220 thousand hectares and reached 240.9 thousand hectares, a third more than last year on that date, and higher even than in 2021, when they amounted to 226 thousand hectares.
Soybean area expanded to 1.636 million hectares and exceeded last year’s already 42%, and there is little left to the forecast of 1.841 million hectares. Kiev region is the leader with 188.8 thousand hectares.
According to the forecast of the Ministry from the end of March, in 2023 sowing areas of cereals and leguminous crops will amount to 10.24 mln ha, which is 1.4 mln ha less then in 2022, while oilseeds area will grow by 0.92 mln ha – to 8.85 mln ha. In particular, winter wheat crops will be 4166 thousand hectares (-834 thousand hectares against the previous year), spring wheat – 285 thousand hectares (+67 thousand hectares), winter barley – 536 thousand hectares (-255 thousand hectares).
