NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will hold a meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council on Wednesday to discuss "the transport of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu says. The meeting is to be held at ambassadorial level, Lungescu said. Shortly before the announcement, Stoltenberg spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal, which had allowed Ukraine to sell some 33 million tonnes of grain and food abroad since last summer despite the ongoing conflict. "We strongly condemn Moscow's attempt to weaponise food," Stoltenberg tweeted after the phone call. "Allies stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes & following NATOSummit, Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before," he added, referring to the NATO summit held in Lithuania earlier in July. At the NATO meeting, the 31 members of the defence alliance decided to further intensify co-operation with Ukraine and established the NATO-Ukraine Council, a joint consultative forum to promote the discussion of security issues with Kiev. Zelenskiy said he and Stoltenberg had discussed the implementation of agreements reached at the summit and further steps to integrate Ukraine into the Western defence alliance. "We also identified with Mr Stoltenberg the priority and future steps necessary for unblocking and sustainable operation of the Black Sea grain corridor," Zelenskiy tweeted. Russia halted the grain deal earlier this week because, according to Moscow, its demands for facilitating the agricultural exports had not been met. Not only did Russia reinstate its naval blockade of Ukrainian ports, but it has been bombarding the city of Odessa, one of the ports through which Kiev shipped grain under the deal, and other Ukrainian regions for days now. It has also threatened to attack any ship in the Black Sea region. Russia has said it wants the West to remove sanctions, specifically a ban on its banks using the international payments method Swift, before it would extend the agreement. The European Union, which supports the Ukrainian grain export deal, has said Russian grain and fertiliser are exempt from the sanctions and many banks are still connected to Swift. The UN condemned Russia for not extending the agreement, saying it will result in more deaths from starvation for people in the poorest regions who are already suffering severely. Australian Associated Press