Russia-Ukraine war updates: Putin, Erdogan discuss Black Sea grain deal

The United States White House says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expects to hold a “leader-level diplomatic engagement” with President Vladimir Putin in Russia.

“As we have warned publicly, arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] are actively advancing,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said.

“We have information that Kim Jong Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia,” Watson added.

Ukraine’s defence ministry says Ukrainian forces have made further territorial gains in the country’s eastern Donetsk region around the city of Bakhmut, while Putin says Kyiv’s counteroffensive “has failed”.

Last week, Ukrainian forces liberated another 3sq km (1.2 sq miles) in the surrounding area of Bakhmut, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram on Monday.

The total area recaptured around the city since the beginning of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is now 47sq km (18sq miles), she said.

In response to Ukraine’s reported counteroffensive gains, Putin said on Monday: “There is nothing deadlocked, it has failed.”

The governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region says border guards and security forces have “thwarted” an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage group that tried to cross into Russia.

Russia has this year repeatedly reported Ukrainian sabotage attempts on its borders, even sending helicopters to put down a dramatic cross-border incursion in the Belgorod region in May.

“Employees of the FSB [Federal Security Service] border force of Russia and units of the Russian defence ministry thwarted an attempt to penetrate the territory of the Russian Federation by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group,” Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.

The Bryansk region lies in western Russia, bordering Moscow-allied Belarus and Ukraine. Like several other Russian border regions, it has been hit by regular Ukrainian attacks and shelling during Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

Ukraine has named a Russian helicopter pilot it says defected over his opposition to Moscow’s invasion after flying across the border in a “long-term special operation” led by Kyiv.

Ukraine’s defence ministry identified the pilot as 28-year-old Maxim Kuzminov who served in the “319th separate helicopter regiment” based in Russia’s Far East region of Primorye.

In a statement, the ministry described how it led the operation in “maximum secrecy”, by first recruiting the pilot after identifying that he was against the Kremlin’s invasion.

It said it helped the pilot fly into Ukraine and that two of the helicopter’s crew – unaware of Kuzminov’s plans to go to Ukraine and defect – were killed on arrival after refusing to surrender.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia in September to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the possibility of supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, The New York Times reports, quoting US and allied sources.

Kim would travel from Pyongyang, probably by armoured train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet with Putin, the newspaper said.

It was a meeting aimed at resetting ties between Turkey and Russia.

Following his re-election in May, the Turkish leader has taken steps criticised by Moscow as hostile, like backing Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership.

The main issue, however, was the revival of the grain deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations which Russia withdrew from in July.

Besides that, did Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan use his close relationship with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to move towards a possible settlement of the war in Ukraine?

Russia is discussing holding joint exercises with North Korea, the Interfax news agency reports.

“Why not, these are our neighbours. There’s an old Russian saying: You don’t choose your neighbours and it’s better to live with your neighbours in peace and harmony,” Interfax quoted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying.

When asked about the possibility of joint exercises between the two countries, he said they were “of course” being discussed, it said.

South Korean news agency Yonhap earlier quoted South Korea’s intelligence agency as saying Shoigu had proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that their countries hold a naval exercise along with China.

Kyiv officials say they have checked all of the city’s secondary schools and that earlier reported bomb threats to the capital’s education facilities were “false”.

At the start of this academic year, 240,000 children in Kyiv have chosen to study in school instead of remotely, according to the city hall.

“Following a bomb threat, all secondary schools in Kyiv were thoroughly checked. The information was not confirmed. The call was false,” the city’s military administration said on social media.

Earlier Monday, it said that police had “received a report of a bomb threat in all schools and colleges in Kyiv”.

Putin has once again claimed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive to retake land seized by Russia has been “a failure”.

“It is not that it is stalling. It is a failure,” Putin told a news conference in Sochi. “At least today this is what it looks like. Let’s see what happens next.”

Putin has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine was not making any headway against Russian defensive positions in Moscow-occupied territories.

However, Russian military bloggers have reported front-line problems for Moscow’s troops.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have held talks on Ukrainian grain exports at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Here’s what happened at the meeting.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has said that Kyiv has visual evidence of Russian drones falling on Romanian territory.

“It’s pointless to deny that something fell there,” Dmytro Kuleba said.

Earlier, Romania’s foreign ministry denied these drones were detonated in the country.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, says Russian soldiers have successfully thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on a thermal power plant in the southern region of Bryansk.

He said that no one was injured and there was no damage to the facilities. He also said that another drone crashed in a field.

Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar says there were high hopes in Turkey that Erdogan would be able to convince Putin to return to the Black Sea grain deal, but this did not end up happening.

“So President Erdogan has said that Turkey is now going with a new proposal to the UN. We don’t know the details of this new proposal. Based on my talks with some officials earlier, they say Ankara is trying to convince some of the Western countries to let Russia, in a limited way, to the international payment system,” Serdar said, adding that insurance companies would now also provide insurance to Russian ships that are going to carry Russian grain and fertiliser.

“It will be a major step if it happens. [It means] Russia is going to breach the international sanctions that were imposed particularly by the West,” he added.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said that while he is open to returning to the Black Sea grain deal once all agreements relevant to Moscow are fulfilled, supplying grain to Africa via Turkey and Qatar is not an alternative.

In August, the German daily newspaper Bild had reported that the governments of Russia, Turkey, and Qatar were preparing a new agreement on grain exports, following Moscow’s termination of the grain deal.

Putin has said during a news conference with Erdogan that Russia’s gas pipelines to Turkey have come under constant attack.

The two leaders discussed a solution to improve gas supply, besides discussing ways to revive the Black Sea grain export deal.

Erdogan has said he believes a solution can be found soon to revive the Black Sea grain export deal, including filling the remaining gaps.

After meeting Putin, the Turkish president also told reporters that “Ukraine needs to especially soften its approaches in order for it to be possible for joint steps to be taken with Russia”.

He also added that more grain needed to be destined for Africa rather than European countries.

Putin has restated after meeting Erdogan that Moscow would be ready to return to the Black Sea grain deal once all agreements relevant to the accord are fulfilled.

The Russian president repeated previous criticism of the West over the deal, which Moscow quit in July.

Putin also said that the Black Sea corridors should not be used for military purposes.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said he expects President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talk to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the latter’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi.

“I am convinced that, based on the results of Erdogan’s conversation with Putin, there will be contact between President Erdogan and President Zelenskyy,” Kuleba said in Kyiv.

“There is trust in relations between President Zelenskyy and President Erdogan.”

Romanian territory has not been hit by Russian drones or debris in an overnight air strike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River, Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu said.

“Of course, there is a risk because what happened there is very close to our borders,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to Berlin.

“We have seen that Russia cynically continues to attack the civilian infrastructure, not allowing Ukraine to export their cereals. Of course, there is a risk of accidents or incidents, but for the time being, it was not the case.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has said that Kyiv has evidence that Russian drones hit Romania.