Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian missiles hit close to nuclear reactors: IAEA director

Ukraine announced Friday that it hopes the first ships carrying grain will finally be leaving two ports this weekend under a United Nations-brokered deal to end Russia's blockade.

The departure of the first ships will be a major test of whether the deal with Moscow will hold and Ukrainian food can begin to ease the global hunger crisis worsened by the blockade amid Russia's war.

Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Oleksander Kubrakov, who is overseeing the operation, told reporters in Odesa on Friday morning that the port as well as the nearby Chernomorsk port are prepared to begin, with 17 ships already loaded with grain.

A final agreement mediated by the U.N. and Turkey needs to be signed off on the routes the vessels will take out of the heavily mined ports. Kubrakov said Ukraine had provided a number of options and that, from its side, the country is ready. Ukraine is waiting for the U.N. to confirm the routes are accepted by both sides.

Kubrakov said the first ships should leave by the end of the weekend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also in Odesa on Friday morning to see the preparations and meet with Kubrakov as well as other officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. Zelenskyy told reporters that the first ship would leave "today or tomorrow.|

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he plans to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days, marking the first time the two leaders will speak since the war began.

Blinken said a critical topic of discussion would be securing the freedom of detained Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, revealing that the U.S. has already put forward a plan to accomplish that.

“We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said.

"I can't and won't get into any of the details of what we've proposed to the Russians over the course of some many weeks now," Blinken said.

Blinken said President Joe Biden played an active role in crafting the proposal for Griner and Whelan.

Blinken also stressed, "My call with Foreign Minister Lavrov will not be a negotiation about Ukraine," adding, "Any negotiation regarding Ukraine is for its government and people to determine."

-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford

Ukrainian forces struck a strategic bridge in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson early Wednesday, according to local officials.

High-precision missile strikes by the Ukrainian military damaged the Antonivskiy bridge, forcing the occupied authorities to close the structure to civilian traffic. The mile-long bridge across the Dnieper River is an essential artery used by Moscow to supply its troops occupying southern Ukraine.

"Strikes were delivered on the bridge, on its road. The bridge is currently closed to the civilian population," Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, told local media on Wednesday.

The bridge's pillars and spans were still intact as of Wednesday morning, according to Stremousov.

"It is simply that the number of holes on the road has increased. The strike on the bridge has affected only the civilian population," he added.

According to Stremousov, Ukrainian forces hit the bridge with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) supplied by the United States. He said ferry crossings across the Dnieper River will be organized during the bridge's restoration, and that traffic will resume in the near future.

"We have prepared a pontoon bridge. We have a ferry link," he told local media.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian military officials said the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war has surpassed 40,000, just more than five months after Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February.

-ABC News' Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol and Yuriy Zaliznyak

Ukrainian officials said they aim to export more than 3 million tons of agricultural products every month from three Odesa ports.

In peacetime, about 5 million tons of grain were exported from ​​the three ports every month, Alla Stoyanova, director of the department of agrarian policy of the Odesa RMA, told Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne.

Two ports will be operational this week and exports from the third port will start next week, Stoyanova said.

Russia and Ukraine last week signed agreements to restart grain exports from Ukraine. In a joint press conference with the President of Guatemala on Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine will do everything necessary to ensure the export of agricultural products from Black Sea ports.

-ABC News’ Max Uzol