First ship carrying Ukraine grain arrives in Türkiye
- The vessel carrying over 26,000 tonnes of corn had left Odesa under a UN-backed deal with Russia
- The exports from one of the world’s top grain producers are intended to help ease a global food crisis
The first grain-carrying ship to leave Ukrainian ports in wartime safely anchored off Türkiye’s coast on Tuesday, while a senior official said Ankara expects roughly one grain ship to depart from Ukraine every day as long as the export agreement holds.
The first ship, the Razoni, carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn to Lebanon, anchored near the Bosphorus entrance from the Black Sea at around 9pm, some 36 hours after departing from Ukraine’s Odesa port.
A delegation from the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN personnel work, is expected to inspect the ship at 0700 GMT on Wednesday, according to Türkiye’s Defence Ministry.
The sailing was made possible after Ankara and the United Nations brokered a grain and fertiliser export agreement between Moscow and Kyiv last month – a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has become a drawn-out war of attrition.
“We hope that there will be some more outbound movement tomorrow,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
“This is delicate, complex and complicated, but there are other movements planned.”