Putin thanks Erdogan for brokering deal on Ukraine grain exports

Russian president Vladimir Putin Friday thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his role in securing a landmark UN-backed deal to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports that had been blocked since the start of Moscow’s invasion.

“Deliveries have already begun, I want to thank you for this and for the fact that at the same time an accompanying decision was made on uninterrupted supplies of Russian food and fertilizers to world markets,” Putin said as the two leaders sat down for talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

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