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Ukraine grain deal may pave way for ceasefire
The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Turkey's coast on Tuesday and is due to be inspected on Wednesday.
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This handout picture taken and released by the Turkish Defence ministery press office on August 1, 2022, shows the Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni, carrying a cargo of 26,000 tonnes of corn, departing from the Black Sea port of Odesa, amid Russia's military invasion launched on Ukraine. The first shipment of Ukrainian grain left the port of Odessa on August 1 under the under the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal signed in Istanbul, on 22 July, aimed at relieving a global food crisis following Russia's invasion of its neighbour, the Turkish defence ministry said.
(AFP/Handout)
T
he deal between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian grain exports may offer a way forward to a possible ceasefire in the five-month conflict, said former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Turkey's coast on Tuesday and is due to be inspected on Wednesday.
"The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated solution," Schroeder told Stern weekly and broadcasters RTL/ntv on Wednesday, adding he had met Putin in Moscow last week.
"A first success is the grain deal, perhaps that can be slowly expanded to a ceasefire," he said.
Schroeder said solutions to crucial problems such as Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, could be found over time, "maybe not over 99 years, like Hong Kong, but in the next generation".
Schroeder, chancellor from 1998 to 2005, has criticised the war in Ukraine but refused to condemn Putin.
Meanwhile, Russia has accused the United States of being directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine and not just supplying Kyiv with arms.
