Turkey's Erdogan meets Putin in Sochi; three ships carrying grain leave Ukrainian ports

Ukrainian farmers have harvested nearly 18 million tons of grain and other agricultural products so far this year, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food wrote in a statement.

The ministry added that about 4.8 million hectares, or approximately 41% of Ukrainian farmland, has been harvested.

— Amanda Macias

The Biden administration's next security assistance package for Ukraine is expected to be $1 billion, one of the largest so far, and include munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles, three sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The package is expected to be announced as early as Monday and would add to about $8.8 billion in aid the United States has given Ukraine since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that President Joe Biden had not yet signed the next weapons package. They cautioned that weapons packages can change in value and content before they are signed.

However, if signed in its current form, it would be valued at $1 billion and include munitions for HIMARS, NASAMS surface-to-air missile system ammunition and as many as 50 M113 armored medical transports.

— Reuters

President Joe Biden said he was "hopeful" about his administration's efforts to win the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner.

"I'm working hard and I'm hopeful," Biden told reporters at the White House.

On Thursday, a Russian court found Griner guilty of drug charges and sentenced her to nine years in prison.

The court also fined Griner 1 million rubles (about $16,000).

Griner, 31, who plays professional basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was arrested in February at a Russian airport on accusations that she was smuggling vape cartridges with cannabis oil.

— Amanda Macias

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said it was aware of reports from Ukraine's nuclear state enterprise that Russian shelling struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"We are seeking to obtain further information about the current situation there," wrote the International Atomic Energy Agency in a statement.

Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine is Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

— Amanda Macias

Russian shelling has hit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant three separate times, a Ukrainian energy corporation said.

"Three hits were recorded right on the site of the station, near one of the power units where the nuclear reactor is located. The Russian forces seriously damaged the nitrogen-oxygen station and the combined auxiliary building," Energoatom wrote on the Telegram messaging app, according to an NBC News translation.

"There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances. There is a high fire hazard. Currently, there are no victims," Energoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise that operates all four nuclear power stations in the country, added in a statement.

— Amanda Macias

The U.N. group overseeing the July agreement to reopen Ukraine's ports for agricultural shipments said it expects export capacity to reach up to 5 million tons a month.

"Crops from Ukraine are sold around the world. Some of the food exported under the Initiative will go to countries experiencing food insecurity," the U.N. wrote in a fact sheet about the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N., Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.

A caravan of three ships departed Ukraine's ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk, Ukraine's infrastructure minister said earlier. He added that the vessels are carrying 57,000 tons of Ukrainian corn.

— Amanda Macias

Spanish celebrity chef and restaurateur Jose Andres said his organization packs more than 9,000 meal kits daily in the Ukrainian city of Odesa.

"9,000 @WCKitchen food kits packed every day from these food fighters in Odesa," wrote Andres in a tweet, referencing the World Central Kitchen, his humanitarian organization dedicated to feeding vulnerable communities.

He added that the World Central Kitchen delivers 40,000 kits a day in Ukraine.

The two-star Michelin chef brought the World Central Kitchen to Ukraine to address the food crisis triggered by Russia's war.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have not yet spoken as they attend the same conference in Cambodia, the State Department said.

The top U.S. diplomat does not have any plans to speak with his Russian counterpart, a State Department official told reporters traveling with Blinken.

"The last time they spoke directly was during that planned phone call last week," the official added. 

There is still no "serious response" by the Russians to the U.S. proposal to release WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, the official added.

— Amanda Macias

President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan begun talks in Russia's Black Sea city of Sochi.

The pair are set to discuss Syria, Ukraine and the Russian construction of a nuclear power plant in southern Turkey.

The Russian president thanked Erdogan for Turkey's role in helping arrange the resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments.

"Deliveries have already begun, I want to thank you both for this and for the fact that at the same time an accompanying decision was made on uninterrupted supplies of Russian food and fertilizers to world markets," Putin said.

Putin also told Erdogan that he wants to sign a deal to boost trade and economic ties between Moscow and Ankara.

"I hope that today we will be able to sign a relevant memorandum on the development of our trade and economic ties," Putin said.

— Karen Gilchrist

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington will "pursue" Russia's offer to discuss a prisoner swap involving imprisoned basketball star Brittney Griner.

"They are prepared to engage" on a swap for Griner, Blinken said at Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "And we'll be pursuing that," he added.

Earlier Friday, Moscow said It was ready to discuss prisoner swaps with Washington through an existing diplomatic channel, a day after Griner was sentenced to nine years in jail on drugs charges.

— Karen Gilchrist

Russia declared 14 Bulgarian diplomats as persona non grata, the country's foreign ministry said.

Earlier this summer, Bulgaria expelled 70 Russian diplomats over espionage concerns and capped the size of Moscow's representation as relations fractured between the previously close allies.

In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry said the move by Bulgaria was evidence of the "further degradation of the collective West, which is ready to sacrifice the interests of partners in order to harm Russia".

— Karen Gilchrist

A senior aide to Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the war in Ukraine will not end if Moscow is ignored, in an apparently pointed attack on other NATO members.

Communications director Fahrettin Altun praised Turkey's role in brokering a deal to export grain from Ukraine and said that other countries should step up their diplomatic response.

"The truth is that some of our friends do not want the war to end. They are shedding crocodile tears," Altun told Reuters, adding that some were actively trying to undermine Turkey's efforts without specifying who.

"The international community cannot end the war in Ukraine by ignoring Russia. Diplomacy and peace must prevail," he added.

The comments come as Erdogan headed to Sochi, Russia to meet his counterpart President Vladimir Putin.

— Karen Gilchrist

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced allegations by Amnesty International that Ukraine is endangering civilians by basing troops in residential areas.

The human rights group said in a report Thursday that it had "documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas."

Zelenskyy refuted the claims, saying that Amnesty was "trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim".

— Karen Gilchrist

Russian and pro-Russian forces said they have seized full control of Pisky, a village on the outskirts of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

They added that fighting was taking place in the city of Bakhmut, north of Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military said Thursday that Russian forces had mounted at least two assaults on Pisky but until then had been repelled.

— Karen Gilchrist

Moscow said it was ready to begin talks with the U.S. about a prisoner swap following the sentencing of basketball star Brittney Griner.

A Russian court found WNBA Griner guilty of drug charges and sentenced her to nine years in prison Thursday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden had previously agreed on a diplomatic channel that should be used to discuss such matters.

"We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden," Lavrov said during a visit to Cambodia.

The Kremlin had previously warned the U.S. against turning to "megaphone diplomacy" in the case of Griner.

 — Karen Gilchrist

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has no plans to speak with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where the two men are attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for foreign ministers, a State Department official told reporters.

The two men did not make any eye contact despite sitting near each other at the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' meeting, pool notes showed.

According to the U.S. official, Russia has not provided a "serious response" on the Biden administration's proposal to the Russian government for the release of Griner and ex-Marine Paul Whelan.

Addressing Russia's war in Ukraine is one of Blinken's objectives in Cambodia, where he will be until Friday, before traveling to the Philippines, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, said the U.S. Department of State.

— Natalie Tham

Three more ships carrying Ukrainian grain exports left the country's Black Sea ports, the United Nations' coordination committee confirmed.

The vessels, carrying a combined 58,041 tons of corn, departed for the U.K., Ireland and Turkey.

The shipments form part of an internationally brokered deal to unblock Ukraine's agricultural exports and ease a growing global food crisis. It follows the first grain shipment on Monday.

Meantime, a Turkish bulk carrier was expected to arrive in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, the first to reach the country's harbor since Russia's invasion.

Kyiv has called for the pact to be extended to other goods such as metals.

— Karen Gilchrist

Kremlin claims NATO is 'real threat' to world order; U.S. WNBA star Griner sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison