Ukraine seeks to extend shipping safe passage deal beyond grain - Reuters

ISTANBUL/KYIV, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Three grain ships left Ukrainian ports on Friday while the first inbound cargo vessel since Russia's invasion was due in Ukraine to load, as Kyiv called for the safe passage deal to be extended to other cargoes such as metals.

and Turkey will continue to work, and food exports from our ports will become stable and predictable for all market participants," Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook after the ships set off.

On Friday, two grain ships set off from Chornomorsk and one from Odesa, carrying a total of about 58,000 tonnes of corn, the Turkish defence ministry said.

The Turkish bulk carrier Osprey S, flying the flag of Liberia, was expected to arrive in Chornomorsk on Friday to load up with grain, the regional administration of Odesa said.

But Ukraine's grain exports were down 48.6% year on year so far this season, its agriculture ministry said.

Ukraine hopes to export 20 million tonnes of grain in silos and 40 million from its new harvest, economic adviser Oleh Ustenko said in July.

The government hopes to earn $10 billion from those volumes but Ustenko said it could take 20 to 24 months to export them if ports are not functioning properly.

Ukraine's Seaport Authority said on Monday there were 68 ships in Ukrainian ports with 1.2 million tonnes of cargo on board, two thirds of it food.

After five months of fighting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this week described the pressure his armed forces were under in the eastern Donbas region as "hell".

Ukrainian General Oleksiy Hromov said his forces had retaken two villages around the eastern city of Sloviansk but had been pushed back to the town of Avdiivka after being forced to abandon a coal mine regarded as an important defensive position.

Norway's King Harald has suffered an infection and will remain in the hospital for the next few days while undergoing treatment with antibiotics, the royal household said in a statement on Friday.