BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis:
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talks on Sunday with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Cairo, where they discussed bilateral relations and regional and global issues of mutual concern.
Lavrov handed to Sisi a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing the importance Russia attaches to consolidating bilateral ties with Egypt within the framework of the "strategic partnership and cooperation agreement between the two countries," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
The Egyptian president hailed the growing cooperation between Cairo and Moscow, which is exemplified by Russian projects in Egypt, such as the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant that is currently being built, and the establishment of a Russian industrial zone on the Suez Canal axis and other joint projects in various fields.
With regard to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Egypt renewed its call for a political settlement of the crisis.
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According to Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on Sunday, Russia launched an attack using high-precision long-range sea- and air-based armaments to destroy Ukrainian air force aircraft at Kanatovo military airfield in the Kirovograd region. Another strike using high-precision long-range sea-based missiles eliminated a Ukrainian military ship and a depot of Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the United States in the seaport of Odessa.
In total, 260 airplanes and 144 helicopters, 1,605 drones, 357 air defense missile systems, 4,156 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 763 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,196 field artillery cannons and mortars, and 4,457 units of special military equipment have been destroyed since the start of the special military operation, the ministry said.
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Russian officials had told Ankara that Russia had "nothing to do" with the attacks on Ukraine's key Black Sea port of Odessa, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.
"The fact that such an incident happened right after the agreement we made yesterday regarding the grain shipment worried us," Akar told Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency.
Akar said he also had phone conversations with Ukrainian ministers and received information regarding the incident.
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The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat hailed the grain export deal that Russia and Ukraine separately signed in Istanbul on Friday with Türkiye and the United Nations.
"The chairperson of the commission commends all the parties on this successful development," said a statement issued here late Friday evening.
The deal, officially called "the Black Sea Grain Initiative," was first signed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and later by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov with the other two sides. ■