A senior Turkish official has suggested that Ukraine's grain exports may restart on Monday from a southern port.

Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told local media on Sunday that the first ship carrying Ukrainian grains may depart on Monday morning. Kalin said the loading of the ships has been completed.

Turkey and the United Nations brokered a deal between Ukraine and Russia to restart exports of Ukrainian wheat and other grains through the Black Sea.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to comply with the deal when they talked over the phone on Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter on Sunday that Ukraine harvest this year could fall by about half.

He said Ukraine's main goal is to prevent a global food crisis caused by Russia's invasion.

Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday that air strikes carried out by its forces destroyed weapons in the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv.

The mayor of Mykolaiv said on social media on the same day that the region suffered the worst shelling since Russia started its invasion of Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, wrote on social media that an entrepreneur who runs a major grain export company was killed in a Russian attack on Mykolaiv.

As Russia continues its intense offensive, and Ukrainian troops counterattack in the south, analysts are waiting to see when Ukrainian grain exports will resume.

Source: NHK