Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has blamed his successor Vladimir Zelensky for border guards refusing to allow him to leave Ukraine on Friday.

Poroshenko is a member of parliament and leader of the small opposition party European Solidarity. He said he was trying to travel to Poland on official business to champion Kiev’s cause in Warsaw and Washington.

The Il-76MD-90AE modification is a major overhaul of the well-proven Il-76MD military transport aircraft.

Russia has started sending the first batches of free grain to struggling African nations under a deal announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year. This week, Somalia became the first to receive a shipment of 25,000 tons of grain. 

At least 14 people died due to extreme weather conditions as a winter storm lashed parts of Russia and Ukraine, knocking out power from hundreds and thousands of households.

"Global boiling"

In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Russia-Africa Summit that Russia had decided to send free grain as humanitarian aid to six African countries on the World Food Program's list.

A ship carrying humanitarian grain from Russia arrived in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Thursday, the Somali national news agency reported.

The US has steadily fallen behind Russia and China in terms of strategic competition, while still insisting on pursuing conflict with both nations in an attempt to reassert its claimed superiority. That situation is ripe for producing a disastrous outcome, an analyst told Sputnik.

A crucial rail link between Russia and China thousands of miles away from the frontline in Ukraine was sabotaged in an operation directed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), it has been reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov faced Western critics while attending international security talks Thursday in Northern Macedonia, where he blamed “NATO’s reckless expansion to the East” for war returning to Europe.