Ukraine war: The latest developments you need to know this Friday
Ukraine and Russia signed a breakthrough agreement on Friday, designed to help relieve a global food crisis caused by blocked Black Sea grain exports.
The ceremony marks the first major deal between the warring sides since Russia's February invasion of its neighbour and comes as global food prices have soared, and people in some of the world's poorest countries are facing starvation.
Kyiv and Moscow signed two identical but separate documents at the request of Ukraine, which refused to initial any document with Russia.
Under the agreement, "safe corridors" will allow the movement of cargo ships in the Black Sea, which "both sides have committed not to attack," said a UN official who requested anonymity.
Negotiators abandoned the idea of clearing the Black Sea of mines -- mainly laid by the Ukrainians to protect their coastline. "Clearing mines would have taken too long," the UN said, adding that "Ukrainian pilots" would clear the way for cargo ships within Kyiv's territorial waters.
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The foreign minister of Transnistria has said that the separatist region is committed to achieving independence from Moldova and possible unification with Russia and that Moldova's recent EU candidacy status effectively ends any possibility of cooperation.
Transnistria, a sliver of land lying between Ukraine and the rest of Moldova, has hosted a contingent of Russian peacekeeping forces since the end of a separatist war in 1992. After Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February, speculation has risen that Moscow would aim to take control of the territory.
In April, a series of explosions in the territory, which has roughly 470,000 inhabitants, caused tensions to soar.
Vitaly Ignatyev, the unrecognised government's foreign minister,
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