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Kyiv is summoning Turkey's ambassador to Ukraine after Ankara released the Zhibek Zholy cargo ship with "stolen" Ukrainian grain Wednesday evening, POLITICO reports, citing Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Ignoring the appeal of the Ukrainian side, the ship was released on the evening of July 6," the statement reads. "In connection with the unacceptable situation, the ambassador of Turkey in Kyiv was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine."

The diplomatic spat threatens to damage relations between Ukraine and Turkey at a highly sensitive time. Turkey has been trying to play the role of neutral broker between Moscow and Kyiv in talks on a truce to allow commercial shipping to resume in the Black Sea.

But tensions over the Zhibek Zholy have complicated the prospects for negotiating an agreement. Turkey's status as a neutral partner now appears to be compromised in the eyes of officials in Kyiv.

Early on the morning of June 30, news broke that the Russian cargo ship had left the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk carrying 7,000 tons of grain, according to the Moscow-appointed head of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region.

The ship was expected to unload in Turkey's port of Karasu on the evening of July 1, but Ukraine asked Turkey to take "urgent measures" and inspect the grain, suspecting it of having been seized from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine — which Moscow denies.