Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow to discuss the latest situation in Ukraine, the collapsed Black Sea grain deal and a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to it.
The diplomats further tackled another potential prisoner swap in the ongoing war and the meeting between their leaders Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin, which Turkish sources said would take place on Sept. 4 earlier on Thursday.
NATO member Türkiye helped negotiate the only major agreement signed by the warring sides since the start of the conflict last year and has been intensifying its efforts in recent weeks to restore the vital corridor.
But Moscow said Wednesday it proposed a new plan in which it would, at a discounted price, send a million tons of grain to be processed in Türkiye and sent to countries most in need, with financial support from Qatar.
"We consider this project as the optimal working alternative to the Black Sea deal," the Kremlin said.
Russia pulled out last month from the year-old deal, brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations, that had enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war.
Since then, Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian ports and grain stores, prompting Ukraine and the West to accuse it of using food as a weapon of war.
Russia says it quit the deal because too little of the grain was getting to the poorest countries, and because it still faces obstacles to the export of its own grain and fertilizer given that Western sanctions affect payments, insurance and port access.
Since the collapse of the grain deal, Russia has also promised to supply quantities of free grain to six African countries.
The Russian statement said Lavrov would restate Moscow's position that following the collapse of the grain deal, it would consider all ships heading to Ukraine as potentially carrying military cargo. A temporary corridor established by Ukraine's government has been operating under the radar since, with the second container ship sailing through Türkiye’s Istanbul strait on Saturday.
"But we see these ways cannot be an alternative to the original initiative and contain risks," Fidan said at a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv last week.
Ankara has been insistent that Russia be included in the equation since its exclusion risks further attacks on Ukrainian ports.
Erdoğan also strives to accomplish brokering a permanent truce between the two countries. He voiced hope for results as a result of his efforts "if Putin and Zelenskyy agree on our mediation."