BY DAILY SABAH WITH AGENCIES
Three more ships loaded with grain departed Ukrainian ports on Friday under a recently concluded safe passage deal, the Turkish Defense Ministry and witnesses said.
The first grain ship to set sail from a Ukrainian port since the start of the Russian invasion, departed Odessa on Monday. Bound for Lebanon, it arrived off Istanbul on Tuesday before passing through the Bosporus en route to its final destination after it underwent an inspection.
“We expect that the security guarantees of our partners from the U.N. and Turkey will continue to work, and food exports from our ports will become stable and predictable for all market participants,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook after the ships set off.
In a rare diplomatic breakthrough in the five-month war, the United Nations and Turkey have brokered a safe corridor deal between Moscow and Kyiv, after the U.N. warned of famines due to Ukrainian grain shipments being halted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, sparking the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II and causing a global energy and food crisis. Ukraine and Russia produce about one-third of global wheat and Russia is Europe’s main energy supplier.
On Friday, two grain ships set off from Chornomorsk and one from Odessa, with a total of about 58,000 tons of corn.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said on Twitter the Panama-flagged Navistar, carrying 33,000 tons of corn bound for Ireland, departed from Odessa.
The Maltese-flagged Rojen, carrying 13,000 tons of corn, departed from Chornomorsk port bound for Britain. The Turkish-flagged ship Polarnet, carrying 12,000 tons of corn, set off from Chornomorsk for the Turkish Black Sea port of Karasu.
All the three vessels will undergo inspections off Istanbul by Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel, who are working at a Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, set up as part of the grain agreement, before they set sail for their final destinations.
Separately, a team of inspectors on Friday completed checking an empty Turkish cargo ship before it heads off to collect grain from the port of Chornomorsk.
The inspection team looked into the hold and other areas of the Barbados-flagged general cargo ship Fulmar S, which was at anchor in the Black Sea just to the north of Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait.
Ukraine has called for the grain deal to be extended to include other products, such as metals, the Financial Times reported.
“This agreement is about logistics, about the movement of vessels through the Black Sea,” Ukraine’s Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka told the newspaper.
“What’s the difference between grain and iron ore?”
Daily Sabah