The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey have spoken by telephone after Ankara angered Moscow by sending five Ukrainian commanders home with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in what Russia called a violation of a prisoner exchange agreement.
The Russian and Turkish foreign ministries said Sergei Lavrov and Hakan Fidan discussed the situation in Ukraine, as well as a Black Sea grain export agreement that lifted a Russian de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports last year.
Moscow has threatened to quit the grain export deal when it comes up for renewal on July 17, saying demands to facilitate sales of its own grain and fertiliser have not been met.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said he was pressing Russia to extend the deal - brokered last year by Ankara and the United Nations - by at least three months.
The Russian ministry said the two sides had focused on recent developments around Ukraine, including Ankara's returning detained commanders of Ukraine's Azov unit, which defended a steelworks in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol last year.
Russia captured the city last year after laying it to waste, killing thousands of civilians in a three-month siege. The Azov unit led the city's defence, holding out in the steelworks for weeks until they were ordered by Kyiv to surrender.
The captured Azov commanders, lionised as heroes in Ukraine and vilified in Russia, were released in a prisoner swap in September, under terms that required them to stay in Turkey until the war ends. Zelenskiy brought them home on Saturday after a visit to Turkey.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey had violated agreements in permitting their release, and had failed to notify Russia in advance.
Ankara has not commented publicly about the decision to send them home. Turkey's presidency and foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Separately, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops have pressed on with their campaign to recapture Russian-held areas in the southeast on Sunday.
Zelenskiy said in broadcast comments that his country's forces had "taken the initiative" after an earlier slowdown.
He acknowledged that advances were slower than what he and his generals wanted.
"All of us, we want to do it faster because every day means new losses of Ukrainians. We are advancing. We are not stuck.
"We would all love to see the counteroffensive accomplished in a shorter period of time. But there is reality. Today, the initiative is on our side."
Russian accounts said Sunday's heavy fighting gripped areas outside the eastern city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian mercenary Wagner forces in May after months of battles. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said one of his units was deployed in the area.
