Erdoğan, Zelenskyy discuss Russia-Ukraine war, grain deal

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed developments in the Russia-Ukraine war, and the grain corridor initiative over the phone on Friday, a statement by the Presidential Communications Directorate said.

Erdoğan told Zelenskyy that positive developments in the grain deal and the prisoner swap should be extended to cease-fire negotiations, the statement said.

He also thanked Zelenskyy for his constructive stance on the extension of the Istanbul grain deal.

Earlier this week, an agreement was reached to extend the Black Sea grain initiative by 120 days.

The initial deal reached in July has helped stave off a global food crisis by allowing the export of food and fertilizers from several of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports that had been blockaded by Russia.

The JCC with officials from the three countries and the U.N. has also been set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

So far, some 11.08 million tons of agricultural products have been shipped, including 4.5 million tons of corn.

Shipments of wheat have reached 3.2 million tons, or 29% of the total. Other commodities shipped include rapeseed, sunflower oil, sunflower meal and barley.

The three ports involved in the deal – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny – have the combined capacity to ship around 3 million tons a month.

Ukraine wanted to include the ports of the southern Mykolaiv region, which provided 35% of Ukrainian food exports before Russia’s invasion.

Mykolaiv was Ukraine’s second-largest grain terminal according to 2021 shipment data so its addition would allow for a much larger volume of grains and oilseeds to be shipped.