ISTANBUL, July  12, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Russian and Ukrainian delegations were

due to meet with UN diplomats in Istanbul on Wednesday in a bid to break a
months-long impasse over stalled grain deliveries across the Black Sea.

The four-way meeting with Turkish officials comes as food prices soar
around the world due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is one of the world's biggest exporters of wheat and other grain.
But its shipments have been blocked by Russian warships and mines that Kyiv
has laid across the Black Sea.

NATO member Turkey -- on good terms with both Russia and Ukraine -- has
spearheaded efforts to resume the grain deliveries.

Turkish officials say they have 20 merchant ships waiting in the Black Sea
that could be loaded quickly with Ukrainian grain.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday that the meeting would
involve the three countries' military delegations and a team from the United
Nations.

"Military delegations from the Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian defence
ministries, and a delegation of the United Nations, will hold talks tomorrow in
Istanbul on the safe shipment to international markets of grain waiting in
Ukrainian ports," Akar said.

- 'Still a way to go' -

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman stressed that Moscow was entering the
meeting with a list of firm demands.

"Our understandable conditions include the possibility to control and
search the ships to avoid the contraband of weapons, and Kyiv's commitment not
to stage provocations," ministry spokesman Pyotr Ilyichev was quoted as saying
by Russia's Interfax news agency

The Russian spokesman added that the UN team would act as "observers" at
the talks.

But Ukraine stressed the UN's importance to the negotiations and said it
wanted its own set of security guarantees.

"We are grateful to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for his active
role in reaching for a solution that could guarantee the security of our
southern regions," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko told
Interfax-Ukraine.

Guterres played down expectations heading into the talks.
"We are working hard indeed, but there is still a way to go," the UN chief
told reporters.

- Putin-Erdogan talks -

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to use his good relations
with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Kyiv's Western-backed leaders to
thrust Ankara into the centre of negotiations about Ukraine.

Erdogan is due to meet Putin for the first time since Russia's invasion
when the two leaders are hosted by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran
next Tuesday.

The talks are officially due to focus on the situation in war-ravaged Syria.

But the Kremlin said Putin and Erdogan will also hold a separate meeting
that is almost certain to focus heavily on Ukraine.

Turkey has been sending defence delegations to both Moscow and Kyiv in a
bid to break the deadlock over Ukraine's grain.

A plan proposed by the United Nations would see the shipments start along
specific corridors that avoid known locations of mines.

- Snake Island -

Ukraine has refused to de-mine the area out of fear that Russia might then
stage an amphibious assault on cities such as the Black Sea port of Odessa.

Ukraine's port authority said last week that Kyiv's recapture of Snake
Island in the Black Sea has allowed it to resume shipments into neighbouring
Romania along the Danube River.

But those deliveries can only cover a small fraction of the 20 to 25
million tonnes of grain believed to be blocked in Ukraine.

The negotiations are complicated by mounting suspicions that Russia is
stealing and exporting grain from farmers in Ukrainian regions now under its
control.

Ukraine summoned Ankara's ambassador to Kyiv after Turkey last week failed
to seize a Russian-flag ship suspected of carrying confiscated grain.

The ship returned to a Russian port after spending nearly a week anchored
off Turkey's Black Sea coast.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it was "deeply disappointed" with Turkey.