U.N.-brokered wartime deal with Russia to allow grain shipments from Ukraine extended four months

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced the four-month extension of a wartime agreement with Russia that will Ukraine's grain shipments to sail on the Black Sea and on to foreign ports, helping alleviate hunger and high food prices.

The first ships carrying exports of grain and fertilizer sailed this summer under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a United Nations-brokered agreement signed between the world body, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey on July 22.

Nearly 11.2 million metric tons of grain and other food have been exported from the three Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi (formerly known as Yuzhnyi) on 471 outbound shipments, according to the Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center established on July 27 in Istanbul.