![(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 06, 2022 US military personnel stand by a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during Saudi Arabia’s first World Defense Show, north of the capital Riyadh. - (FILES) In this file photo taken on March 06, 2022 US military personnel stand by a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during Saudi Arabia’s first World Defense Show, north of the capital Riyadh. - - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e6/06/01/1095925672_0:46:3073:1774_600x0_80_0_0_1f57291079089e7926aff90406bbb655.jpg)
"Now all contacts are next to none," Peskov said when asked whether the Kremlin and the Biden White House are in communication.
"Despite all the difficulties created by the Kiev regime, over the past day, without participation of the Ukrainian authorities, 18,886 people, including 2,663 children, were evacuated to the territory of the Russian Federation from dangerous areas of the Donbas republics and Ukraine," Col. Gen. Mizintsev said at a briefing.
He added that since the start of Russia's special military operation, more than 1.5 million people, including over 250,000 children, have been evacuated to Russia.
“If we take the statistics of hunger in dynamics, then in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, 690 million people were starving in the world. The next year, this figure reached 811 million. That is, 120 million crossed the 'red line'... to the state of hunger. This year, according to our forecast, the situation in connection with hostilities in Ukraine will lead another 13-15 million people beyond this line," Kobyakov said.
The Defence Ministry also confirmed that Ukrainian nationalists had blown up a tank with nitric acid in Severdonetsk, as they were retreating. A toxic cloud has moved from the site of the explosion to Kremennaya and Rubezhnoye. Numerous civilians have been hurt, the ministry revealed.
"There is a problem with the export of Russian grain. Although the West very loudly reminds that grain was not subject to sanctions, for some reason they bashfully keep silence about the fact that ships importing Russian grain were sanctioned. They are not accepted in European ports, they are not insured, and, in principle, all logistics, financial chains that are associated with the supply of grain to global markets, were under the sanctions of our Western colleagues," he said at a press conference following his visit to Saudi Arabia.
"As far as Russia is concerned, there are no problems with ensuring a stable supply of grain to world markets. The problem lies primarily in the lack of free exit from Ukrainian ports through minefields that were planted by Ukrainian military personnel," he added.
"Following a conversation with [Turkish] President [Recep] Tayyip Erdogan, an agreement was reached that Turkish colleagues will try to help organise the demining of Ukrainian ports in order to free ships that are seized there, in fact, from there," Lavrov told reporters.