Turkey on Monday stressed the importance of the first shipment of grain under a United Nations-brokered agreement taking place as soon as possible.

This was emphasized by Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in a phone call with Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, the Defense Ministry said.

Russia, Ukraine, the U.N. and Turkey signed a landmark deal on Friday that aims at releasing millions of tons of wheat and other grain trapped in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, in a move hailed as a major step toward averting a global food crisis.

In a statement, the ministry said Akar welcomed a statement that Kyiv hopes to begin implementing the deal this week, adding Turkey would continue to do what it has to under the agreement.

Both Ukraine and the U.N. on Monday said the first shipments of Ukrainian grain could leave Black Sea ports within days.

"All parties have reconfirmed their commitment," said deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq after a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Odessa port on Saturday cast doubt on the deal.

The Kremlin has brushed this aside, saying the strike only targeted military infrastructure.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said Turkey expects Kyiv and Moscow to keep to their responsibilities under the deal.

Akar, who discussed the grain agreement with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier, also said work at the Istanbul-based joint coordination center (JCC) was continuing intensely, his ministry said.

"Turkey has done and will continue to do its part," the minister said.

"We expect that the first ship may move within a few days. The Joint Coordination Centre will be liaising with the shipping industry and publishing detailed procedures for ships in the very near future," the U.N.’s Haq told reporters in New York.

The agreement aims to allow safe passage for grain shipments in and out of Ukrainian ports, blockaded by Russia since its Feb. 24 invasion. Russia has blamed Ukraine for stalling shipments by mining the port waters.

Haq said all four parties to the deal will have a presence in the JCC at Turkey’s National Defense University in Istanbul on Tuesday. The center will monitor all ship movements and inspections.

Russia and Ukraine are major global wheat suppliers and Moscow’s invasion sent food prices soaring, stoking a global food crisis the World Food Programme (WFP) says has pushed some 47 million people into "acute hunger."

Senior Ukrainian government officials told a news conference in Kyiv that they hoped the first grain shipment would depart from the port of Chornomorsk this week, and that shipments could be made from all ports included under the deal within two weeks.

The deal signed on Friday in Istanbul was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough that could restore Ukrainian grain shipments to prewar levels of 5 million tons a month.

Kubrakov said there were no limits on how much grain could be exported and resuming shipments would bring Ukraine at least $1 billion a month.

"We believe that over the next 24 hours we will be ready to work to resume exports from our ports. We are talking about the port of Chornomorsk, it will be the first, then there will be Odessa, then the port of Pivdeny," Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said.

Kubrakov said Russian strikes were the main risk to the deal and "we understand that it can scare the market."

Russia said its forces had hit a Ukrainian warship and a weapons store in Odessa on Saturday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said there was nothing in the grain agreement to prevent it from attacking military infrastructure in Ukraine.

"It was not a helpful thing," Haq said. "We want all sides ... to fully implement what they have agreed to."

The U.N.-led plan to resume shipments involves Ukrainian pilots guiding grain ships along safe channels in its territorial waters with a minesweeper vessel on hand as needed. Ships entering and leaving will be inspected in a Turkish port to allay Russian fears they could smuggle weapons.

The WFP said Monday it was optimistic about the deal but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis even if it is implemented effectively.

The WFP itself has had to cut aid this year in key hunger hotspots like Yemen and South Sudan due to global inflation and critical funding gaps, both exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.

"We’re optimistic the deal could lead to improvements in global food prices. Countries dependent on grain supplies from the Black Sea would likely be the first to feel a positive impact," a WFP spokesperson told Reuters.

She added, however, that the current global food crisis is not a price crisis alone, and that man-made conflict, climate shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to drive up global food insecurity even if Friday’s deal holds.