First grain shipment leaves Ukraine port after blockade

Lviv, Ukraine, Aug 1 (EFE).- Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Monday that a first ship carrying around 26,000 tons of grains had left the Black Sea commercial port of Odesa at 6.15 am, after months of a blockade triggered by the war with Russia, state news agency Ukrinform reported.

The agency cited ministerial sources as saying that the freighter Razoni, which flies a Sierra Leone flag and is headed to the port of Tripoli in Libya, is carrying a shipment of Ukrainian corn.

Earlier, a Turkish government spokesperson had informed of the scheduled departure of the first grain shipment from Odesa on Monday morning, after Kyiv and Moscow reached an agreement in late July over lifting the blockade on Ukrainian grain exports.

Turkey is set to act as the guarantor for the agreement, which was brokered by the United Nations along with Istanbul, and manage a check post to inspect the operations.

The agreement aims to enable Ukrainian grain exports, which have been largely suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, and ease the worldwide food crisis triggered by the war.

The shipment of grains came under a shadow after Russia carried out several strikes against the Odesa port, one of the three ports set to carry out the exports, with Kyiv and the international community accusing Moscow of violating the deal.

Meanwhile demining operations were carried out in the waters close to these ports, supervised by Turkey and a team of experts from other Western countries, which led to further delays in the shipments setting off. EFE

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