Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday that the agreement will be signed when the parties meet again next week and will include joint checks on grain control at ports and Turkey that will ensure the safety of Ukrainian grain export routes in the Black Sea. Turkey will also establish a coordination center with Ukraine, Russia and the UN on grain exports, Akar said. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak tweeted: “His task will be to carry out general monitoring and coordination of safe navigation in the Black Sea.” In his daily speech, Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, said: “We are indeed making significant efforts to restore food supply to the world market. And I am grateful to the United Nations and Turkey for their respective efforts.” Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February, earlier said a deal seemed “two steps away” as Turkey hosted the quadrilateral talks in Istanbul. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a “critical step forward” had been taken towards reviving Ukrainian grain exports, but warned that “more technical work will now be needed to implement today’s progress”. “Today is an important and essential step, a step on the way to a comprehensive agreement.” Ukraine and Russia had shown they could talk, but “for peace we still have a long way to go,” he told reporters in New York. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine or Russia, both among the world’s biggest grain exporters. Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Pyotr Ilychev, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s international organizations department, as saying earlier on Wednesday that Russia wanted to check and inspect the ships itself to rule out arms smuggling. Meanwhile, several Ukrainian cities reported heavy Russian shelling and, while not linking a deal to progress in talks to end the war, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was downbeat on prospects for peace. More than 20 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain are stuck in silos in the Black Sea port of Odessa and dozens of ships have been grounded by Russia’s blockade, part of what Moscow calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, but which Kyiv and West. it is an unjustified war of aggression. The talks, in Istanbul between Ukrainians, Russians, Turks and UN officials, took place behind closed doors at an undisclosed location. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said Moscow has made proposals to resolve the grain issue as soon as possible. Turkey released a photo of the meeting showing the Russian and Ukrainian delegations sitting across from each other and making stony faces. In addition to being a major global supplier of wheat, Russia is also a major exporter of fertilizers and Ukraine a major producer of corn and sunflower oil. A deal on export deregulation is seen as vital for food security, particularly among developing countries, and for stabilizing markets. Ukrainian officials said there had been sustained Russian shelling across Donetsk province, which Moscow plans to capture to complete its takeover of eastern Ukraine’s industrialized Donbass region. Russia’s state-run Tass news agency on Wednesday quoted a separatist official, Vitaly Kiselyov, as saying that Russian and proxy forces had entered the town of Siversk in Donetsk province and could take it within days. It was not clear what this claim was based on. In their evening briefing, Ukraine’s armed forces said Russia had not launched any new offensive on the front line that includes Shiversk, but that the city had been shelled by artillery. Russia also hit 28 settlements in the Mykolaiv region bordering the Black Sea, killing at least five civilians, according to Kirill Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office. Russia, which says it does not target civilians, said on Wednesday it shot down four Ukrainian military jets, a claim the Ukrainian air force dismissed as propaganda. Reuters could not independently verify accounts on the battlefield. As the Istanbul talks began, Kuleba reaffirmed Ukraine’s overall stance on the war, telling a briefing that there were still no peace talks with Moscow and that no territory would be ceded to Russia in any future deal. Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of exacerbating a global food crisis and fueling inflation by complicating efforts to supply poorer nations with grain. Moscow has blamed Ukraine, accusing it of refusing to remove mines scattered around its coastline to defend against Russian aggression and which pose a threat to shipping. Russia has also attacked the West for imposing sanctions in a number of areas that make it difficult for Russia to finance and insure its own maritime freight. Diplomats say details of the plan discussed in Wednesday’s talks included an idea for Ukrainian ships to guide grain ships in and out of mined port waters. Russia agrees to armistice on shipment transfer. and Turkey – backed by the UN – is inspecting ships to allay Russian fears of arms smuggling. Ilyichev said that Russia is ready to facilitate the navigation of foreign merchant ships to export Ukrainian grain. Russia’s RIA news agency, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, said Russia’s demands included removing “barriers to exports” created by Western sanctions, citing the sectors of “maritime insurance, logistics, transport services and of banking”.
