The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn, departed the Black Sea port at 9:48am. local time, the infrastructure ministry announced, after weeks of negotiations mediated by Turkey and the UN. Turkey’s defense ministry, which led negotiations for last month’s grain deal, said the Razoni would take its cargo to the port of Tripoli in Lebanon. It is the first such ship to depart from Odessa since late February, when Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian navy has blockaded Ukraine’s trade sea lanes, launched missile strikes at its ports and grain storage infrastructure, and attacked civilian grain ships. The ship was due to arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Joint Coordination Center set up as part of the UN-led grain deal. After arriving in Turkey’s largest city, he was expected to undergo checks at the center, which is staffed by Russians, Ukrainians, Turks and UN officials under the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed it as a “day of relief” for major importers of Ukrainian grain, especially in the Middle East and Asia, and the US embassy in Kyiv said it was monitoring the “continued implementation” of the deal. The Kremlin said on Monday that the ship’s departure was “extremely positive” news. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said the resumption of commercial maritime traffic in the Black Sea was “a good opportunity to test the effectiveness of the functioning of the mechanisms” under an agreement reached in Istanbul to allow Ukraine to export grain . “We will hope that all agreements will be fulfilled by all sides and the mechanism will work effectively,” Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency. Another 16 ships are awaiting departure, the Ukrainian government said, carrying a small fraction of the more than 22 million tons of wheat, corn and other grains remaining in the country. The conflict has left up to 47 million people worldwide at risk of acute hunger, according to the World Food Programme. All 16 of the remaining ships were trapped in Odessa and nearby ports after the Russian invasion in late February. Ukraine said it had started accepting applications from new ships to receive grain and hoped to reach full capacity within weeks. However, ship owners entering Odessa are still working out the logistics of insuring their ships, cargo and personnel, which has been complicated by Russian missile attacks on the port late last month, which injured several people. Private international carriers are in a “wait and watch” mode, a person familiar with the matter said, with many ships long assigned to different routes. Russia claimed it hit military infrastructure and sank a Ukrainian navy ship, while Ukraine said the attack, a day after the accord was signed, would jeopardize or delay the implementation of the export deal. Long known as the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine is the fifth largest exporter of cereals in the world. It accounts for 80 percent of Lebanon’s wheat imports and is a major supplier to countries such as Somalia, Syria and Libya.
