Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty in speech denouncing West

Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday that Russia has agreed to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to keep grain and other commodities shipping out of Ukraine's ports amid the ongoing war.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, that the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative would "continue in the same way as before" as of noon Wednesday, according to Erdogan.

The renewed agreement, first reached over the summer, will prioritize shipments to African countries, including drought-ravaged Somalia, after Russia expressed concerns that most of the grain was ending up in richer nations.

Moscow agreed to return to the deal after receiving written guarantees from Kyiv that Ukraine would not use the safe shipping corridors through the Black Sea for military actions against Russian forces, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Russia had suspended its role in the deal over the weekend, after accusing Ukrainian forces of carrying out a "massive" drone attack on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.

Turkey and the U.N. brokered separate deals with Russia and Ukraine in July to allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and for Russia to export grain and fertilizers.

Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine -- often referred to collectively as Europe's breadbasket -- produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but a Russian blockade in the Black Sea combined with Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible. As a result, millions of people around the world -- particularly in Africa and the Middle East -- are now on the brink of famine.

Iranian ballistic missiles, which Russia plans to purchase from Iran, will probably be placed on the northern border of Ukraine, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces Yuri Ignat said Tuesday.

Ignat claimed the ballistic missiles' range was 300 km for one and 700 km for another.

"We have no effective defense against these missiles. It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but in fact it is very difficult to do it with the means we have at our disposal. We have air defense, not missile defense," he said.

-ABC News' Yulia Drozd

As Ukrainian forces advance to capture the city of Kherson, Russian forces are ordering civilians out of parts of the now-occupied city. Some 70,000 people along a 15 kilometer (10 mile) stretch of the left bank of the Dnipro River will be evacuated deeper into the Kherson region or to Russia, according to the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.

Russia had previously ordered civilians out of an area it controls on the west bank of the river.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday lambasted Russia's recent decision to withdraw from the U.N.-brokered deal that allowed for grain to be exported through the Black Sea -- likely to be a chief focus of this week’s G-7 ministerial meeting and potentially the G-20 Leaders' Summit next month.

"We deeply regret Russia's decision to suspend its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is having immediate, harmful impacts on global food security," Price said during a press briefing. "Russia should return to full participation in the initiative, and we urge all parties to swiftly agree to sustain this crucial program through the months to come."

"Any disruption to the initiative risks spiking food prices, lowering the confidence of insurers and commercial shippers who have returned to Black Sea routes, and further imposing hardships on low-income countries already reeling from dire humanitarian crises and global food insecurity," he added.

Price said Russia's reneging had already caused future contracts for foodstuff to rise, even though some ships appear to have been allowed to pass through the water routes with their cargo following Moscow's announcement.

"We've seen Russia engage in what appears to be collective punishment for the people of Ukraine," he said. "But Moscow's suspension of the initiative would be tantamount to collective punishment for the rest of the world -- but especially lower- and middle-income countries that so desperately needed this grain."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford