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Grain silos in the port of Odessa: "Only one or two details to solve"
Photo: Nacho Doce / REUTERS
Ukraine is apparently on the verge of exporting grain again for the first time in months.
Turkey expects transports from Ukraine across the Black Sea as early as Monday.
The probability is very high that a ship loaded with grain will leave a Ukrainian port on Monday morning, said the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Channel 7. There are only one or two details to be solved.
There has been speculation for days as to when the first ship could depart.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that they were ready and waiting for a sign from international partners.
On July 22, wartime opponents Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement with the United Nations (UN) and Turkey to allow grain exports from Ukraine from three ports.
UN fears hunger crises
According to Ukrainian sources, more than 20 million tons of grain from last year's harvest are still waiting to be exported.
Port operations were suspended for security reasons after the Russian invasion at the end of February.
Moscow was accused of blocking the grain.
Due to the lack of grain deliveries, the UN increasingly fears hunger crises in the world.
A center to control grain exports was opened in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Ships are inspected when passing through the Bosphorus Strait, i.e. when entering and exiting the Black Sea, to ensure that they are not carrying weapons or the like.
The center is staffed by representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the UN and Turkey.
Putin signs new naval doctrine
While preparations for food deliveries are underway, Russian President Vladimir Putin has enacted a new naval doctrine for Naval Forces Day.
Russia's sea borders, including those in the Arctic and the Black Sea, were also defined there.
"We will ensure protection with all means and by all means," said the Kremlin chief at a parade of warships in St. Petersburg on Sunday.
At the same time he announced that the new hypersonic sea rocket »Zirkon« would soon be put into service.
Delivery of the missiles will begin in the next few months, and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov will be the first to be equipped with them.
The new doctrine stated that the US quest for dominance of the world's oceans was a "challenge to Russia's national security."
The document, which Putin ceremoniously signed, also stipulates that the military infrastructure on the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea will be expanded.
According to the doctrine, the construction of modern aircraft carriers is also planned.
sep/dpa/Reuters