The operation of the grain corridor has fully returned to normal, Turkish Defense Ministry chief Hulusi Akar said in an interview on Thursday.

The movement of ships along the 'grain corridor' has completely normalized. Its functioning continues, it is a humanitarian issue, Akar told Haberturk TV channel. He noted that during negotiations with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu, he gave him guarantees from the Ukrainian side that the corridor would not be used for military purposes.

According to him, more than 10 million tons of grain were exported from Ukraine as part of the deal.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan earlier said that after his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and talks between the defense ministers of the two countries, an agreement was reached to restore the operation of the grain corridor. The Russian Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that Russia is resuming participation in the food deal.