Putin and Erdogan are expected to meet amid efforts to renew the wheat agreement

2023-09-01 19:15:28, Kosova & Bota CNA

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Monday, the Kremlin announced on Friday, more than six weeks after Moscow pulled out of a deal brokered by Ankara and the UN that allowed Ukrainian wheat to be exported safely to world markets, despite 18 months of fighting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Presidents Putin and Erdogan will meet on Monday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The announcement ended weeks of speculation about when and where the two leaders might meet as international efforts continue to renew the agreement that allows grain and other food to be sent to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where the risk of the spread of hunger increases.

Ukraine and Russia are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other commodities that developing countries rely on.

Turkey, along with the United Nations, brokered the July 2022 deal, which allowed Ukraine to resume food shipments from three Black Sea ports.

Based on this agreement, ship and cargo inspections were overseen by Turkey. Ukraine exported almost 33,000 tonnes of grain while the deal was in place.

Ankara's role was key. Turkey is one of Russia's main trading partners and a logistics hub for Russia's foreign trade amid Western sanctions.

In another memorandum, agreed at the same time as Ukraine's initiative, Russia and the United Nations pledged to help overcome obstacles to Russian food and fertilizer exports due to the war. Russian officials have repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the accords, and did so in July, alleging failure to meet the terms of the memorandum.

Russia has complained that transport restrictions have hampered its agricultural exports, but it has exported record amounts of wheat since last year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a new proposal to Russia in hopes of restoring the agreement, but it did not meet Moscow's demands, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday as he hosted his Turkish counterpart. Hakan Fidan.

Mr. Lavrov said he had given the Turkish government a list of actions the West should take in order to resume Ukrainian exports to the Black Sea. Planned talks between Presidents Putin and Erdogan could help unlock the deal.

The announcement of Monday's meeting coincided with the departure of two cargo ships from the Ukrainian port city of Yuzhne.

Meanwhile, Russian officials said Friday that air defense intercepted drones targeting three of the country's western regions. Regional governors said defense systems intercepted three drones in the Kursk, Belgorod and Moscow regions.

Moscow airports briefly suspended flights, but there were no reports of major damage or injuries, according to Russian authorities.

Drone strikes targeting targets inside Russia, which Moscow blames on Ukraine, have become almost daily as the war enters its 19th month and Kiev's forces continue a counteroffensive against Russian troops.

Recently, drones have reached areas in the heart of Russia.

Ukraine's apparent strategy is to unnerve Russia and increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, although Kiev officials have largely neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the attacks on Russian soil.

The Associated Press news agency has not been able to determine whether the drones were launched from Ukraine or from within Russia.

The head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview with the online newspaper "The War Zone" that "we operate from the territory of Russia." He did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, satellite images analyzed by the Associated Press news agency show that drone strikes, allegedly carried out by Ukraine, late Tuesday destroyed at least two Ilyushin Il-76 military transport planes at a Russian air base.

According to General Budanov, the transport planes were deliberately targeted.

Images taken on Thursday show Princess Olga Pskov International Airport, which is a military-civilian airport about 700 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine and close to Estonia and Latvia.

The four-engine Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft are among the strongest assets of the Russian military's air transport capacity. They can land and rise in difficult conditions. The Russian military is believed to have over 100 of these in its fleet.

Images analyzed this Friday by the "Associated Press" agency, showed what appeared to be destroyed Il-76 aircraft on the platform of the air base. Impact damage could also be seen around the platform.

Eleven more Il-76s were moved, possibly in an attempt to make it more difficult for them to be hit again.

The satellite image was taken at 13:03. according to the local time there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that his country had developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers away, apparently referring to the attack on the air base. He described the weapon as manufactured by Ukraine's Ministry of Strategic Industries, but gave no other details.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, suggested in a televised interview on Friday that the weapon could fly even further than the distance Zelenskyy mentioned./ VOA