Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced he would replace Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov amid public outcry over alleged corruption by subordinates in his ministry.

Romania denied a claim by the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv that Russian drones fell inside the Nato member’s territory and exploded there during a barrage involving dozens of unmanned vehicles targeting grain infrastructure in the region of Odesa overnight.

Following the strikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi that he was open to negotiations on reopening the UN-brokered deal that allowed Kyiv to export food via the Black Sea and that Moscow abandoned in July.

Latest developments

• Ukraine hopes counteroffensive tempo will increase soon
• Zelensky swaps out defence minister in wartime Cabinet shakeup
• Ukraine says Russian drones fell, exploded on Romanian territory
• Erdoğan eyes steps on Black Sea grain from Putin ahead of G20
• Russia proposed joint naval drills with North Korea and China

Judicial probe finds no proof SA sent arms to Russia

A judicial probe uncovered no evidence to back up allegations that South Africa supplied weapons to Russia last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa appointed Judge Phineas Mojapelo to lead a panel to investigate claims made by the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, that the weapons were loaded on to a Russian cargo ship, the Lady R, that docked in the Simon’s Town Naval Base in Cape Town in December.

The claim sparked fears of a diplomatic fallout between South Africa and its second-largest trading partner, jeopardising its preferential access to US markets, and the rand tumbled to a record low against the dollar.

“The allegations levelled against our country had a most damaging effect on our currency, economy and our standing in the world and tarnished our image,” the President said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday. “The panel found no evidence that any cargo of weapons was loaded for export on the ship, the Lady R.”

“We appreciate President Ramaphosa’s commitment to investigating this serious matter and look forward to advancing progress with our South African partners on our shared priorities, including trade, health, and climate,” David Feldmann, spokesperson for the US embassy in Pretoria, said in an emailed response to questions. “We will let South Africa speak for its panel’s conclusion.”

Putin sees gas-hub agreement with Turkey in ‘very near future’

Russia is close to an agreement with Turkey to set up a natural gas trading hub as the Kremlin seeks alternative export routes for the fuel.

“I hope that in the very near future we will complete our negotiations,” Putin said in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as he opened a meeting with Erdoğan. A gas hub in Turkey will “make the energy situation in the region more stable and balanced”.

Moscow is looking to tighten ties with Ankara after relations with the European Union deteriorated sharply amid Putin’s war in Ukraine. The president came up with the gas-hub plan last year, suggesting that building more Black Sea links to Turkey would make that route Russia’s main westbound export corridor.

The project “will enrich” bilateral ties, Erdoğan said on Monday.

The venture will take the form of an electronic trading platform rather than a physical facility to store large volumes of Russian fuel, Putin said in July. He didn’t specify whether such a setup would mean less gas trading there than initially envisaged.

Putin says he’s open to discussing grain deal with Erdoğan

Putin said he was open to discussing grain exports with Erdoğan, who is pushing to revive a deal that would allow Ukraine to ship its crop through the Black Sea and ease concerns over global food security.

Erdoğan is visiting Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi, hoping to come away with a new framework for negotiations that he can present to global leaders at the Group of 20 Summit in India later in the week.

The Turkish leader said he expected Monday’s talks to yield a “very important” message for African nations concerned that grain prices may rise again. But it wasn’t clear if that announcement would involve a revamped Black Sea safe corridor from Ukraine or a separate plan to ship a much smaller volume from Russia itself.

Uncertainty about the future of supplies from one of the world’s largest grain exporters has contributed to weeks of volatility in global wheat prices, as has the surge in hostilities in and around the Black Sea.

Russia launched waves of drone attacks on the southern Odesa region in the leadup to the talks, damaging storage and industrial facilities as well as agricultural equipment. It also targeted two river ports that are the main alternative export routes to the Black Sea.

A mid-sized power that’s maintained strong ties with both Putin and the West, Turkey helped broker the original Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022, allowing Ukrainian cargoes to return to global markets upended by Russia’s invasion.

But the arrangement, a rare diplomatic success in an otherwise grinding war, was fragile from the outset and Ukraine’s grain exports were repeatedly disrupted by slow ship inspections and political tensions.

Russia exited the agreement and closed the safe corridor in July, complaining that its own demands for better trade terms had been ignored.

Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff told Bloomberg TV on Monday that his country was depending on Turkey to support the restoration of the grain deal and was ready to export to poor nations in Africa and Asia.

US official says Russian oil price cap is working despite rally

The price cap on Russian oil imposed by the US and its allies continues to work, a senior US Treasury Department official said, even though Russia’s crude keeps rising.

Since the middle of July, Russia’s flagship Urals crude has been quoted above $60 a barrel, while some refined oil products have climbed above the cap set by the US, Group of Seven nations and European Union.

The US is happy to see Russia keeping the market well-supplied, and it doesn’t want to “disrupt the global oil market in a way that could lead to instability,” Eric Van Nostrand, acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

“Nine months into implementation, the cap is working,” he said, adding that the policy had reduced Russia’s revenue, and any breaches would be looked at by enforcement agencies from the US and allies.

Russia ‘proposed joint naval drills with North Korea and China’

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un the holding of joint naval drills that included China when he made a rare trip to Pyongyang in July, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing South Korea’s spy agency.

National Intelligence Service chief Kim Kyou-hyun was quoted by legislators as saying in a closed-door session of Parliament’s intelligence committee on Monday that Shoigu made the offer directly to Kim when they met, Yonhap reported.

Such drills would mark a turning point for reclusive North Korea and its relations with long-time partners Russia and China. There is no indication whether Kim accepted the offer, but his country’s military has kept to itself for large-scale drills since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

While three-way drills would add to the concerns of the US and its two main partners in the region — South Korea and Japan — the actual implications of such exercises would be limited since North Korea maintains a small coastal navy that pales in comparison with the fleets of Russia and China, according to Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

The US has accused North Korea for months of providing weapons to help in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last week, the White House said it had new information that Russia and North Korea were negotiating arms deals under which the isolated regime would provide Putin’s army with munitions and other support for its invasion of its neighbour.

Zelensky swaps defence minister in wartime Cabinet shakeup

Zelensky announced his most significant wartime Cabinet shakeup yet, tapping a new defence minister as Kyiv ramps up an anti-graft crackdown and presses a grinding offensive in the country’s occupied south.

Zelensky named Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund, to replace Oleksii Reznikov, who has battled allegations of graft in military procurement by subordinates on his watch.

Reznikov, who has denied wrongdoing and informed the president this summer that he was overworked, shook up top positions in the ministry in February to weed out sleaze. He submitted his resignation on Monday, he said in a post on X, formerly called Twitter.

The UK government now expects him to be named as Kyiv’s ambassador to London, although the appointment has yet to be confirmed, according to people familiar with the situation. He wasn’t personally involved in corruption and isn’t under investigation, a person familiar with Ukraine’s graft probe said.

“I think the ministry needs new approaches and another format of cooperation with the military and with society,” Zelensky said on Sunday in his daily video address. “The Parliament will be asked to approve the decision this week.”

Zelensky has ramped up a crackdown on corruption, which remains a major concern for allies as they continue to pour weapons and cash into Ukraine to help it beat back Russia’s invasion, retake occupied territory and stabilise the war-ravaged economy.

The president fired all of the army’s top draft officers last month, following the dismissal of several legislators, including from his own party. Reznikov’s removal may help give Zelensky cover against concerns that corruption is undermining the armed forces as Ukrainian soldiers fight Russia at the front.

Umerov (41) has been praised by anti-corruption activists for his efforts to clean up graft at the State Property Fund.

He’s been involved in war-related talks, including about prisoner swaps and the grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export food via the Black Sea before Russia pulled out in July. A fluent Turkish speaker, he worked for the leader of Ukraine’s Crimean Tatars after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014 and has focused on the protection of human rights of its indigenous people.

He also has extensive ties in Turkey and the Middle East, where countries often seek to play go-betweens with the Kremlin and Kyiv.

Reznikov has faced increased pressure in recent weeks over allegations by activists and the media that the ministry overpaid for food and military uniforms.

He has rejected the accusations, which have come at a critical time as Kyiv’s forces battle in a counteroffensive aimed at cutting off Moscow’s land bridge to Crimea in southern Ukraine.

Officials from Ukraine and its allies have announced advances in the two-month campaign, and White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had made “notable progress”. DM