Ukraine, Russia to sign top deal to re-open grain ports, Turkey says

Russia and Ukraine will sign a deal on Friday to reopen Ukraine's Black Sea ports to grain exports, Turkey said, raising hopes that an international food crisis exacerbated by Russia's invasion can be eased.

Ukraine and Russia, both of the world's largest food exporters, did not immediately confirm Thursday's announcement by the Turkish presidency. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted in an overnight video address that his country's Black Sea ports could soon be unblocked.

The blockade by Russia's Black Sea fleet has exacerbated disruptions to global supply chains and, along with Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, fueled high inflation in food and energy prices since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Full details of the deal were not immediately released. It was due to be signed at 1330 GMT on Friday, Turkish President  office said.

Zelenskiy, whose speech focused mainly on the potential for Ukrainian forces to make gains on the battlefield, said: "And tomorrow we also expect news for our state from Turkey - regarding the unblocking of our ports."

"PACKAGE" ACTION.

Moscow denies responsibility for the worsening food crisis, instead blaming the chilling effect of Western sanctions for slowing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine's mining at its Black Sea ports.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington would focus on holding Moscow accountable for implementing the agreement.

The United Nations and Turkey have been working for two months to broker what Gutierrez called a "package" -- to resume grain exports from Ukraine to the Black Sea while facilitating Russian supplies of grain and fertilizer.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the 27-member European Union had proposed easing some earlier sanctions in an effort to ensure global food security, and Moscow hoped it would create conditions for unrestricted grain and fertilizer exports.

THE EYES OF UKRAINE CONTROL THE TIDE

Zelenskiy met with senior commanders on Thursday to discuss arms deliveries and stepping up attacks on the Russians.

"(We) agreed that our forces have a strong potential to advance on the battlefield and inflict significant new casualties on the occupiers," he said in his video.

Kyiv hopes that Western weapons, especially longer-range missiles such as the US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, will allow it to counterattack and regain eastern and southern territories lost to the invasion.

Ukraine has accused the Russians of stepping up rocket and missile attacks on cities in recent weeks in a deliberate attempt to terrorize its population.

Thousands of people have died and towns and cities have been destroyed by Russian bombing during the conflict. Moscow denies that it has deliberately fired on civilians and says all its targets are military.

However, according to British military intelligence, there is a good chance that Russia's longer-range weapons will miss their intended targets and cause civilian casualties, as Moscow increasingly uses long-range air defense systems to compensate for its lack of land-attack missiles.

Such air defense systems, equipped with smaller warheads to shoot down aircraft and missiles, are unlikely to be able to penetrate hardened military structures on the ground and their crews will have little training for such missions, Britain's Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update on Friday.

There has been no major breakthrough on the front since Russian forces captured the last two Ukrainian towns in eastern Luhansk province in late June and early July.

Russian forces are now focused on capturing all of neighboring Donetsk province on behalf of separatist proxies, who have declared two breakaway mini-states covering the wider industrialized Donbas region.

The Ukrainian General Staff said in its morning update that Russian forces, backed by heavy artillery fire, continued to seek gains towards the towns of Kramatorsk and Bathmat and the thermal power plant in Donetsk province, but had made no significant progress on the ground.

Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk on Friday morning, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

Ukrainian troops also destroyed bridges before retreating from the Luhansk city of Lysychansk, which are now blocking food supplies.

Russia says it is conducting a "special military operation" to demilitarize its neighbor and rid it of dangerous nationalists.

Kyiv and the West claim that this is an imperialist attempt to recapture the country, which broke free from Moscow's rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Europe's biggest conflict since World War II has killed more than 5,000, forced more than 6 million to flee Ukraine and left 8 million internally displaced, according to the United Nations.