Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday that Ankara is ready to take on a role in an "observation mechanism" between Moscow, Kyiv and the United Nations if an agreement is reached in that regard.
In a phone call, Erdogan told Putin that peace needs to be established as soon as possible and confidence-building steps need to be taken on the conflict in Ukraine, the president's office said in a readout.
There was no reference to food in the readout. But last week a senior Turkish official told Reuters that Turkey is negotiating with Russia and Ukraine about opening a sea corridor for grain exports from Ukraine.