Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine
USA Women’s National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, stands inside a ‘A cage of the defendants before a hearing at a court in Khimki, near Moscow, August 4, 2022.-
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty Images
Moscow has said it is ready to start talks with the United States over a prisoner swap after basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug trafficking.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden had previously agreed on a diplomatic path for talks.
It comes as both Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travel to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they refused to speak to each other.
Meanwhile, Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan are due to meet later today in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.
Elsewhere, three more grain shipments left Ukrainian ports in the latest phase of an internationally brokered deal aimed at alleviating a global food crisis. A Turkish bulk carrier was due to arrive in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, the first to reach the country’s port since the Russian invasion.