The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni departed Odessa carrying more than 23,000 tonnes of maize bound for Lebanon. “The first grain ship after Russian aggression has left port,” Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter, posting a video of the longboat honking its horn as it slowly headed out to sea. In a separate Facebook post, Kubrakov said Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of corn, “so the ability to export it through ports is a colossal success for ensuring global food security.” “Today Ukraine, together with partners, is taking another step to prevent world hunger,” he added. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hailed the ship’s departure as “very positive”, saying it would help test the “effectiveness of the mechanisms agreed during the talks in Istanbul”. The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, carrying Ukrainian grain, departs Monday from the port of Odesa, Ukraine. (Oleksandr Kubrakov/Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine/Reuters) Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the Razoni was expected to dock Tuesday afternoon in Istanbul at the entrance to the Bosphorus, where joint teams of Russians, Ukrainians, Turks and UN officials would board it for inspections. In an interview with Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, Akar warned that the global food crisis threatens to trigger “a serious wave of migration from Africa to Europe and Turkey.” The corn will be headed to Lebanon, a Middle Eastern nation in the grip of what the World Bank has described as one of the world’s worst economic crises in more than 150 years. A 2020 explosion in Beirut’s central port devastated the capital and destroyed grain silos there, part of which collapsed after a week-long fire as recently as Sunday. The Turkish Defense Ministry said other ships would also depart from Ukrainian ports through the safe corridors under agreements signed in Istanbul on July 22, but gave no further details. The Turkish cargo ship Polarnet was seen loading Ukrainian grain at a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Friday. (Press Office of the President of Ukraine/The Associated Press) Russia and Ukraine signed separate deals with Turkey and the UN, paving the way for Ukraine — one of the world’s breadbaskets — to export 20 million tons of grain and other agricultural goods stuck in Black Sea ports because of the invasion of Russia. The agreements also allow Russia to export grain and fertilizer.
Praise for the export coordination center
Turkey’s defense minister praised the joint coordination center staffed by Russians, Ukrainians, Turks and UN officials as a place where the opposing sides can engage each other. “The problems they have are obvious, there is war. But it is the only place where the two sides can meet,” Akar said. “Despite the ups and downs, there is a good environment for dialogue.” Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said 16 more ships, all blocked since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, were awaiting their turn at Odessa’s ports. Kubrakov said the missions would also help Ukraine’s war-torn economy.
Planning for next year
“Unlocking the ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange earnings to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for the coming year,” Kubrakov said. The United Nations welcomed the development, saying in a statement that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hoped the missions would “bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security, especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.” The resumption of grain shipments came as fighting raged elsewhere in Ukraine.
Residents again urged to leave Donetsk
Ukraine’s presidential office announced that at least three civilians were killed and 16 others wounded by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko repeated a call for all residents to evacuate. He particularly emphasized the need to remove some 52,000 children who still remain in the region. In Kharkiv, two people were injured by a Russian strike in the morning. One was injured while waiting for a bus and another was injured when a Russian shell exploded near an apartment building. The southern city of Mykolaiv also faced repeated shelling, which caused fires near a medical facility, destroying a humanitarian aid shipment containing medicine and food. A damaged printing factory is seen Sunday after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Vyacheslav Madievsky/Reuters) Immediately after the signing of the agreement on July 22, a Russian missile targeted Odessa. Analysts warned that continued fighting could threaten the grain deal. “The risk remains: the Odesa region faces constant shelling and only regular supplies could prove the viability of the agreements signed,” said Volodymyr Sidenko, an expert at the Kyiv-based think-tank Razumkov Center. “The departure of the first boat does not solve the food crisis, it is just the first step that could be the last if Russia decides to continue its attacks in the south.”
