Turkey reports agreement to restore Ukrainian grain exports

Turkey announced an agreement with Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations to resume Ukrainian grain exports blocked by Russia, raising the likelihood of ending a standoff that has put millions of people at risk of starvation.

The Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi AkarHe said the deal will be signed when the parties meet again next week and includes joint controls to check grain at ports, and Turkey to ensure the safety of Black Sea export routes.

Turkey will also create a coordination center with Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations for grain exports, he said.

Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February in what has become Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, had previously said a deal seemed only “Two steps” during the four-party talks in Istanbul.

The Secretary General of the UN, Anthony Guterresstated that there had been a “critical step” towards reviving Ukrainian grain exports, but warned that “more technical work will now be needed to materialize today’s breakthrough”.

“Today is an important and substantive step, a step on the road to a global agreement.” Ukraine and Russia have shown that they can dialogue, but “for peace we still have a long way to go”noted in New York.

The Russian Interfax news agency earlier quoted Pyotr Ilyichevhead of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that Russia wanted to control and inspect the ships to rule out arms smuggling.

Meanwhile, several Ukrainian cities reported heavy Russian bombardment, and while he did not link the grain deal to progress in talks to end the war, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kulebawas less than optimistic about the prospects for peace.

More than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain are stuck in silos in the port of Odessa, on the Black Sea, and dozens of ships have been stranded by the Russian blockade, which is part of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, but which kyiv and the West consider to be an unjustified war of aggression.

The talks between Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and UN officials took place behind closed doors at an undisclosed location in Istanbul.

Turkey released a photo of the meeting showing members of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations sitting across from each other with stony faces.

As well as being one of the world’s leading suppliers of wheat, Russia is also a major exporter of fertilizers and Ukraine a major producer of corn and sunflower oil, so an agreement to unblock exports is seen as vital for food security, especially among developing countries.

Russia reports progress in Donetsk

Ukrainian officials said there had been ongoing Russian shelling of Donetsk province, which Moscow is seeking to capture to complete its takeover of Ukraine’s eastern industrialized Donbass region.

Much of the region was controlled by separatists – labeled Russian puppets by Kiev – before the war.

The Russian state news agency TASS on Wednesday quoted a separatist official, Vitaly Kiselev, saying that his and Russian forces had entered the city of Siversk, in Donetsk province, and could take it in a couple of days. It was not clear what the claim was based on.

In its evening briefing, the Ukrainian military said that Russia had not carried out any new assault on the front line that includes Siversk, but that the city had come under artillery fire.