KYIV: Ukraine can export 3 million tonnes of grain from its ports in September and may in the future be able to export 4 million tonnes from them monthly, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said on Tuesday.

He said Ukraine had received applications for 30 ships to come to Ukraine in the next two weeks to export grain.

Ukraine's grain exports have slumped since Russia invaded on Feb. 24 and blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports, but three Black Sea ports were unblocked last month under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv that made it possible to send hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Ukrainian grain to buyers.

(Reportin by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)