Ukrainethe United Nations and Turkey praised progress in talks aimed at resuming grain exports from the Black Sea, blocked by Russia and reduce the risk of famine for millions, but an end to the war was still a long way off when heavy shelling continued on Thursday.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday that an agreement will be signed next week.
Ankara will ensure the security of transit shipments and the parties will jointly monitor grain shipments in ports, he added.
But UN chief Antonio Guterres said more work was needed before a deal was struck.
“We have seen a crucial step forward,” Guterres told reporters in New York.
“We still need a lot of goodwill and commitments from all parties,” he said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky seemed optimistic in the overnight comments: “The Ukrainian delegation has informed me that there is progress.
“In the coming days, we will agree on the details with the UN Secretary-General.”
Turkey and Ukraine said a joint coordination center with Russia and the United Nations would be established.
“His job will be to conduct overall monitoring and coordination of safe navigation in the Black Sea,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately comment.
Russia is not only a major global wheat supplier, but also a major fertilizer exporter and Ukraine is a major producer of maize and sunflower oil.
A deal is seen as essential for food security, especially between developing countries, and for stabilizing markets.
But Guterres warned there was still “a long way to go” before peace talks to end the war would begin.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said there had been ongoing shelling in several cities.
Russian troops attacked a number of civilian facilities in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Thursday, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said on messaging app Telegram.
Rescue workers and emergency teams are already working on the ground, he added.
In the industrialized Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Russian missiles have hit the Kramatorsk industrial zone and electricity has been cut in some parts of the city, Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko wrote on Facebook.
A Russian strike destroyed a school in Donbas on Wednesday. No casualties were reported.
Russia denies intentionally attacking civilians.
“All this makes me sick… Monsters, just monsters, there is no other word.
“A school – if they themselves are okay to grow up stupid, why bomb our schools?” said 60-year-old resident Oleksandr.
Daria, 15, told Reuters that students hoped the war would soon be over and that they would go back to school, but “now there is nothing left to return to”.
Russian media reported that Ukrainian armed forces launched another missile strike in a strategically important Russian-occupied southern area of Kherson that it hopes to recapture Kiev.
The RIA news agency quoted the Russian-imposed administration of the Kherson region as saying that Russian air defenses shot down five missiles fired at the city of Nova Kakhovka, while debris from two of the missiles fell near a factory.
“According to preliminary information, there has been another attack on a Russian munitions factory in Sokil,” Serhiy Khlan, an adviser to the Ukrainian head of Kherson province, wrote on Facebook.
On Wednesday, TASS quoted a “separatist” official, Vitaly Kiselyov, as saying that Russian and plenipotentiary forces had entered the town of Siversk in Donetsk province and could take it in a few days.
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbas region.
Russia had launched no new attacks on the front lines, including Siversk, but the city had been shelled by artillery, Ukrainian forces said.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield records.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 led to the largest conflict in Europe since 1945.
Millions have fled, thousands have died, cities have been reduced to rubble and fears of a greater conflict in the West have increased.
The Kremlin says it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine.
Kiev and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext, accusing Russia of exacerbating a global food crisis and fueling inflation.
Moscow blames Ukraine, saying it is refusing to remove mines it has scattered along its coastline to protect itself from Russian attack and which threaten shipping.
The Kremlin also says Western sanctions are making it more difficult for Russia to fund and insure its own sea freight services.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted Pyotr Ilyichev, head of the international organizations division of the Russian foreign ministry, as saying that Russia wanted to check and inspect the grain ships itself to rule out arms smuggling.
Before announcing progress in grain export talks, diplomats said the plan under discussion involved Ukrainian ships guiding grain ships through mining port waters; Russia agrees to ceasefire as shipments move; and Turkey – backed by the United Nations – inspecting ships to allay Russian fears of arms smuggling.