Turning point in the Ukrainian wheat crisis: what should be the first real agreement on the corridors in the Black Sea for the export of cereals from Ukraine's ports will be signed on Friday in Istanbul.
And above all, the first agreement between Moscow and Kiev since the beginning of the war on 24 February.
It is no coincidence that the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, will also be present.
This was announced by the office of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the great mediator of the agreement, which will be signed by the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in the sumptuous Dolmabahce Palace, on the Bosphorus Strait.
That the agreement was in the air was understood since the meeting three days ago in Tehran between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had spoken of "progress on the export of Ukrainian wheat", which he defined as "a good sign".
However, Putin himself had stressed that any agreement must also include blocked exports of Russian wheat.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had for his part stated that "when we solve this problem, not only will the export path for wheat and sunflower oil from Ukraine be opened, but also for products from Russia".
Hence the turning point and the announcement.
"The wheat export agreement, which is of fundamental importance for global food security, will be signed in Istanbul under the auspices of President Erdogan and UN Secretary General Guterres together with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations," said the spokesman for the Turkish leader Ibrahim Kalin.
A member of the Kiev delegation for negotiations, Rustem Umerov, said that shipments could resume from three ports under full Ukrainian control, namely Odessa, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk.
An estimated 25 million tons of wheat and other grains are blocked in Ukrainian ports.
A blockade that has caused a world food crisis.
Meanwhile, the nuclear spectrum continues to hover over the war, even if for the moment fears are centered on a possible accident at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, at the center of the fighting, rather than on a clash between great powers.
The Ukrainians accused the Russians of wanting to use the plant - the largest in Europe, with six reactors - to store missiles, tanks and explosives.
While Moscow has stated that the forces of Kiev, with their attacks on the site, aim to cause "a nuclear disaster in Europe".
Ukraine, Lukashenko: 'Let's finish it here, if we go further there will be a nuclear conflict'
But fears do not subside even for a possible widening of the conflict leading to an atomic confrontation between Russia and NATO.
This, at least, was the warning issued by the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
"Let us stop - said Lukshenko, the most faithful ally of Moscow - and then we will find out how to continue living. There is no need to go further. Further away there is the abyss of nuclear war".
While former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev used his usual bellicose tones to say that, "as a result of all that is happening, Ukraine could lose what remains of its state sovereignty and disappear from the world map".
ANSA agency
Moscow: 'Risks for half of Europe from the raids on Zaporizhia'
On the ground, in the last few hours, three people have died and 19 were injured in a Russian bombing on Kharkiv, in the Ukrainian north-east.
But what is particularly worrying is the dangerous situation of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant, which on Wednesday reported an attack by Ukrainian kamikaze drones on the site, with a death toll of 11 injured, of which 4 serious.
The same sources had said that service buildings had been hit but none of the reactors of the plant.
The goal of Kiev, said today the spokeswoman of the foreign ministry of Moscow, Maria Zakharova, is precisely to create a "nuclear disaster".
The Ukrainians retort by stating that it is the Russian forces that jeopardize the security of the plant, still managed by Ukrainian technicians,
using it to store all kinds of armaments.
"The Russian military forces - declared Energoatom, the state company that supervises nuclear plants in Ukraine - are asking the administration of the power plant to open the engine rooms of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd units to be able to deposit the entire military arsenal".
While last Saturday the president of Energoatom, Pedro Kotin, accused Russia of using the plant also to install missile launch systems.