Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease an international food crisis while the US pledged more military support five months into the invasion.
There have been no major breakthroughs on front lines since Russian forces seized the last two Ukrainian-held cities in eastern Luhansk province in late June and early July.
The February 24 invasion of Ukraine has caused Europe's biggest conflict since 1945, forcing millions to flee and turning entire cities to rubble. The Kremlin says it is engaged in a"special military operation" to demilitarise and"denazify" Ukraine. Both Kyiv and Western nations say the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.
A blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia's Black Sea fleet, trapping tens of millions of tonnes of grain and stranding many ships, has worsened global supply chain bottlenecks and, along with Western sanctions, stoked food and energy price inflation. Addressing Western concerns that reopening shipping lanes could leave Ukraine open to attack, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow would not seek to take advantage of the de-mining of Ukraine's ports.
Senior UN officials, briefing reporters on Friday, said the deal was expected to be fully operational in a few weeks and would restore grain shipments from the three reopened ports to pre-war levels of 5-million tonnes a month.
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