Oleksandr Kubrakov News

KYIV (Reuters) — Five more ships are on their way to Ukrainian sea ports using a new corridor opened to resume predominantly agricultural exports, an alternative arrangement to the Black Sea grain deal blocked by Russia, a top Ukrainian official said on Sunday.

KYIV (Reuters) -The first big ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea (NYSE:SE) port has set sail since Moscow quit a deal in July to allow exports, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said on Friday, part of Kyiv's campaign to break Russia's de facto blockade.

Two cargo ships have arrived in one of Ukraine’s ports this weekend, using a temporary Black Sea corridor established by the government

Two cargo vessels have left Ukraine despite Russian threats and are in the Black Sea, maritime officials said Saturday

Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, the Kremlin said, amid hopes the two can restore a deal ensuring safe passage for grain shipments. Russia pulled out from the UN-backed grain agreement that Turkey helped broker in July, effectively revoking safe navigation for civilian ships sailing through the Black Sea. «Negotiations will indeed take place in Sochi on Monday,» Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. Moscow's announcement came shortly after Ukraine said two more ships were sailing through a temporary corridor Kyiv had set up to ensure safe navigation. «Two vessels are sailing through a temporary corridor from Ukraine's Black Sea ports to the Bosphorus,» Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on social media.

Ukraine from exporting grain. The attacks destroyed buildings in the port of Izmail and halted ships in their tracks as they prepared to arrive there to load up with Ukrainian grain in defiance of a de-facto blockade Russia reimposed in mid-July. Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the Russian drone attacks damaged almost 40,000 tonnes of grains which had been destined for countries in Africa as well as China and Israel.

Russian drones have hit a Ukrainian port city along the border with Romania, causing significant damage and a huge fire at facilities that are key to Ukrainian grain exports

The departure of the first Ukrainian ship carrying grain from Odesa since the start of the Russian blockade of Black Sea ports five months ago has been widely welcomed.

Ukraine said on Monday it hoped a UN-brokered deal aimed at easing global food shortages by resuming grain exports from the Black Sea region would start to be implemented this week.