Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia soon to discuss the collapsed United Nations deal that had allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling AK Party says.
The UN- and Turkey-brokered deal lasted a year but ended last month after Russia quit.
Turkey is seeking to persuade Russia to return to the agreement, under which Odesa's seaports shipped tens of millions of tonnes of grain.
Since the grain-export deal collapsed, Russian forces have targeted Ukrainian ports with volleys of missiles and kamikaze drones.
Omer Celik, the AK Party spokesman, said Erdogan would visit Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi "soon" but did not specify whether he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"After this visit there may be developments and new stages may be reached regarding" the grain deal, he told reporters.
The Kremlin said on Friday there was an understanding the two leaders will meet in person soon.
Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources in reporting that Erdogan is expected to meet Putin in Russia next week, possibly on September 8, before he travels to a G20 meeting in India.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said on Monday the country's troops had retaken the southeastern settlement of Robotyne and were trying to push further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military said last week that its forces had raised their flag in the strategic settlement but were still carrying out mopping-up operations.
Ukrainian forces believe they have broken through the most difficult line of Russian defences in the south and that they will now start advancing more quickly, a commander who led troops into Robotyne told Reuters last week.
"Robotyne has been liberated," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar was quoted as saying by the military.
The settlement is 10km south of the frontline town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region on an important road towards Tokmak, a Russian-occupied road and rail hub.
Tokmak's capture would be a milestone as Ukrainian troops press southwards towards the Sea of Azov in a military drive that is intended to split Russian forces.
Ukraine's defence ministry posted a video on social media platform X of soldiers describing the liberation and raising the flag in the settlement.
"Mr President, commander-in-chief, the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region has been liberated from the occupiers by the forces of the 47th Mechanised Brigade and adjacent units," a Ukrainian soldier said in the video.
"The blue and yellow flag will be raised in every Ukrainian village," the soldier said.
Russia has not confirmed the Ukrainian advance.
In its statement, Russia's defence ministry said its troops had repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces near Robotyne and Verbove.
Ukrainian forces are also fighting Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, and progress has been slower than had been widely expected in the counteroffensive because they have encountered vast Russian minefields and trenches.
Maliar described the battlefield situation in the east as "very hot" in the past week.
She said Russian troops were gathering new forces there and regrouping, aiming to deploy their best troops there.
Ukrainian forces had continued to advance south of Bakhmut, she said, referring to the nearly devastated eastern city that was captured by Russian troops in May after months of fierce fighting.
