The Turkish Defense Ministry said that “the ship Razzoni, loaded with corn and flying the Sierra Leone flag, will be the first ship to leave the Ukrainian port of Odessa and head to Lebanon,” according to “Reuters”.
The ministry explained that other shipments will follow “along the sea lanes because the procedures have been completed,” according to “AFP”.
Russia and Ukraine had reached an agreement by the United Nations and Turkey to start re-exporting grain, which was halted due to the war that broke out last February.
The agreement reached in Istanbul last week aims to ease the food crisis and reduce global grain prices, which have risen since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
The agreement also aims to allow safe passage of grain shipments to and from the ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Bivdnyi.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s grain harvest this year could be half the usual amount.
The Ukrainian president attributed this to the Russian special military operation in his country.
“Ukraine’s harvest this year is threatened to be reduced by half,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in English on Twitter.
“Our main goal is to avoid a global food crisis due to the Russian invasion. There are still alternative ways of delivering grain shipments,” the Ukrainian president added.
Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kobrakov, said earlier that his country was ready to re-ship grain from its southern ports.
Kobrakov told reporters in the southern port of Odessa that Ukraine was ready to ship grain from two ports.
It is worth noting that Ukraine and Russia accounted for about a third of global wheat exports before the Russian military operation in its neighbour.
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