KYIV, MOSCOW – July 22 (ONLINE) Russia and Ukraine will sign a deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, Turkey and the United Nations said, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased, Reuters News Agency reported Friday.
Russia and Ukraine, both among the world’s biggest exporters of food, will send their infrastructure and defence ministers respectively to a 1330 GMT signing ceremony in Istanbul, three sources told Reuters.
The Kremlin confirmed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu would sign the Turkish and U.N.-brokered accord, hours after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy said he expected his country’s seaports would soon be unblocked.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan were to attend the ceremony.
The blockade by Russia’s Black Sea fleet has worsened global supply chain disruptions and, along with Western sanctions imposed on Moscow, stoked high inflation in food and energy prices since Russian forces swept into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
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