Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said the Azov Concord ship departed from the port of Russian-occupied Mariupol was not related to the export of Ukrainian grain.

"It has nothing to do with the export of our grain from our ports. In fact, we are underway to convince the Russian side to join the quadripartite negotiations and discuss UN plans to unblock Ukrainian ports," Bodnar explained to UNIAN.

He added that Azov Concord had entered the port of Mariupol even before the full-scale Russian invasion. The occupiers halted it all this time. They have released the ship now, it has left the port and is heading for the open sea.

The diplomat stressed that "it has nothing to do with grain." Russian propaganda is working very actively and "trying to drive a wedge" in relations between Ukraine and Turkey.

As previously reported, a Turkish defense delegation was in Moscow for talks aimed at resuming grain exports from Ukraine across the Black Sea.

The Turkish side stated they agreed on the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports. Russian media claimed that Azov Concord with Ukrainian grain departed the Mariupol port, which is occupied by Russian troops.

Russia is blocking the Black Sea, so Ukraine cannot export its food by the sea. It also accuses the West of raising food prices through sanctions against it.

Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Senik said that Ukraine had established two channels for grain exports during the Russian naval blockade: Poland and Romania. Ukraine is still negotiating with the Baltic states.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that his country had offered to contribute to resolving the global food crisis caused by Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports.

Addressing the African Union, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine had not yet made progress in multilateral negotiations to unblock maritime grain exports.