Kiev

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is to visit Russia "soon" for talks with Vladimir Putin on reviving a deal to ship grain across the Black Sea, his party spokesman said Monday.

The meeting will take place in Russia's resort city of Sochi, Erdoğan's ruling party spokesman Ömer Çelik told reporters, adding that Türkiye hoped to avert a looming "food crisis".

Türkiye's top diplomat Hakan Fidan held talks with senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodomyr Zelensky, on the ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine and the resumption of the grain deal in his first visit to Kiev under his new capacity as the foreign minister.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed his ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) role as the representative of Türkiye's population, calling it the "party of all 85 million people."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reaffirmed Türkiye's stance against the annexation of Crimea by Russia and pledged solidarity with Ukraine's territorial integrity.

"We express in every platform, especially in the United Nations, that Crimea is a part of Ukraine," Erdoğan stated on Aug. 23, speaking via a video message to attendees of the Third Crimea Platform Summit in Kiev.

A Russian missile strike on Ukraine's northern city of Chernihiv killed seven people and wounded 148, the regional governor said Sunday, in what the UN denounced as a "heinous" attack.

The strike came during the Orthodox holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Saturday, as some attended morning church services in the city.

Kiev on Aug. 18 welcomed a US decision to let Denmark and the Netherlands hand F-16 fighter jets over to Ukraine once its pilots are trained to use them.

In Russia, the authorities shut down respected rights group the Sakharov Center and announced fresh international sanctions against its critics abroad.

Türkiye warned Moscow to avoid further escalations after a Turkish-owned cargo vessel was attacked by the Russian navy last weekend, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's office said on Aug. 17. 

Ukraine downed three waves of Russian missiles and drones targeting Odesa, its army said early on Monday, the latest in a string of attacks in the southern region on the Black Sea coast.

Russia thwarted an attack by 20 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow-annexed Crimea overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.

Moscow escalated its attacks in Ukraine on Saturday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing a deadly strike on a blood transfusion centre as a "war crime".

A separate strike struck a key factory, both attacks coming just hours after Kiev hit a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait.