Turkey has said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia "soon" for talks with Vladimir Putin on reviving a Black Sea grain deal that could be used as a springboard for broader peace negotiations with Ukraine.
On Monday, Erdogan's ruling AK party spokesman Omer Celik told reporters that the meeting will take place in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi and focus on averting a looming "food crisis".
In televised remarks, Celik said: "As you know, [Erdogan] will pay a visit to Sochi soon."
Meanwhile, Turkish media are reporting that Erdogan could meet the Russian president, possibly as soon as 4 September.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that a meeting between the two leaders was being prepared "intensively" but gave no time or place for the talks.
#Erdogan is going to meet with #Putin on September 4 in #Sochi
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 29, 2023
He plans to discuss the resumption of the grain deal, reports Bloomberg. pic.twitter.com/uBj0sND5tB
Ankara's communication channels
This comes as Erdogan has used his good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv to try and bring the two sides into formal peace talks.
He last met Putin in the Kazakh capital Astana in October last year.
The two also held a teleconference in April that inaugurated a Russian-built nuclear power plant on the eve of Erdogan's tough re-election to his final term in office.
Turkey was a key broker in the only major agreement signed by the warring sides since the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine – a deal to ship grain from three Ukrainian ports across the Black Sea.
As both Russia and Ukraine are major grain exporters, their initial deal helped bring down global food prices that were contributing to starvation in Africa and parts of the Middle East.
New sea route
Only last month, Moscow scuppered the UN-backed agreement with Kyiv citing non-compliance with provisions aimed at easing Russia's own exports of agricultural products and fertiliser.
Russia has since launched repeated attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure and warned that it may consider any ships in the Black Sea as military targets.
Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on Russian targets around the Black Sea, but Erdogan has remained undeterred.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was dispatched to Kyiv last Friday in a bid to bring Ukraine on board for the talks.
Minister @HakanFidan was received by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of #Ukraine, in #Kyiv. 🇹🇷🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6vMrFJSf6f
— Turkish MFA (@MFATurkiye) August 25, 2023
Ankara's chief envoy used the visit to urge Ukraine to abandon its attempts to set up a new route – reportedly backed by Washington and the European Union – that ships can use without Russia's involvement in time for the autumn harvest.
"We know alternative routes are being sought [for grain shipments], but we see no alternative to the original initiative because they carry risks," Fidan said in Kyiv.
Fidan is reportedly due to visit Moscow in the coming days.
For now, Ukraine depends on land routes and a shallow river port that severely limits its grain export volumes.
It has sent two ships along a new route from a port in Odesa that reached Istanbul after hugging the shores of NATO members Romania and Bulgaria, but Turkish officials argue that it is too dangerous.
