Turkey and UN Broker New Talks on Russia-Ukraine Black Sea Truce

(Bloomberg) — Turkey and the United Nations have set up fresh talks in Russia and Ukraine to discuss a Black Sea ceasefire, trying to coalesce scattered efforts to protect grain shipments as global food prices surge.

The meetings will take place in early October, according to a senior diplomat. Envoys from the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss NGO, will serve as mediators, the diplomat added, speaking anonymously to describe the effort. 

The initiative, which launched in September with buy-in from other global powers, attempts to replicate a successful 2022 push to secure Black Sea grain shipping. Since that deal fell apart a year later, countries have struggled to coordinate ceasefire efforts.

The talks are picking up steam as Russia and Ukraine, which make up more than a quarter of the world’s wheat shipments, increase attacks on each other’s Black Sea port facilities, helping push wheat futures to a three-year high in August. The assaults are escalating food supply concerns, as bad weather pummels output elsewhere, a supercharged El Niño sets in and prices hover around multi-year peaks. 

Turkey and the UN bring credibility to the campaign, having also steered the 2022 ceasefire, which ensured the safe passage of grain, fertilizer and food from Ukrainian ports. The deal was one of the few instances of a narrow truce holding for some time during Russia’s four-plus years of full-scale war on Ukraine.

A closed-door meeting was held to kick-start the diplomatic initiative during the UN General Assembly in late September. Turkish officials joined, as did representatives from the US, Europe, India and Egypt, which has been hit hard by the grain disruptions.

Participants discussed a “narrowly defined and reciprocal arrangement” involving free commercial navigation and the protection of ports and energy infrastructure, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. Wheat prices also eased slightly in September.

The upcoming talks will prioritize the concerns of countries hit by rising food prices, with the hope that their more distant connection to the conflict will help the effort. 

A spokesperson for the Turkish government did not reply to a request for comment.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in September he received a “positive” response from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy about reestablishing a Black Sea grain corridor. But Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi recently told Bloomberg News he sees no positive signs that this could happen in the coming months.

Russia has set out tough conditions for resurrecting any Black Sea deal, including some sanctions relief and significant military concessions from Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov even said in September that a return to the the 2022 Black Sea deal was “completely unacceptable and unrealistic,” arguing that Ukraine had abused the arrangement.

On Friday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s proposals to halt attacks, including in the Black Sea, remain on the table, but suggested they were prompted by Moscow’s retaliatory strikes. He stressed that Russia will decide how to respond based on its own interests.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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