Three other ships with cereals will sail on Friday Ukraine thanks to the UN-backed agreement that Russia lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports in order to ease the global food crisis, the Turkish Defense Minister said on Thursday.
“The departure of three ships from Ukraine is planned tomorrow,” the minister, Hulusi Akar, was quoted as saying by the state agency. Anadoluthree days after the departure of the first bulk carrier from the port of Odessa since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also had a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the implementation of the agreement, the Turkish government said, without giving further details.
Russia and Ukraine agreed in July to resume grain exports through the Black Sea, and the first ship, bound for Lebanon, loaded with 26,000 tons of corn, left the port of Odessa on Monday.
The ship, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, was inspected on wednesday in the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul by the Joint Coordination Center, a team that includes officials from Turkey, the United Nations and the two parties to the conflict.
In a statement, the team said the ship’s passage offered “proof” that the deal could hold.
In another document, the Coordination Center specified that the three ships will load a total of more than 58,000 tons of corn and that two of them will leave the port of Chornomorsk, south of Odessa, from where the last one will set sail.
The three freighters will head to Karasu in Turkey, Ringaskiddy in Ireland and Teesport in the UK, the note details.
According to Ukraine, another 16 bulk carriers are ready to sail.
Russia and Ukraine are the world’s main grain suppliers.
The export blockade sent food prices skyrocketing around the world.
