Four more grain ships leave Ukrainian ports: Ankara

ANKARA

Four more ships have left Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain export deal, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Aug. 17.

According to a statement by the ministry, ships carrying sunflower meal, sunflower oil and corn departed from the Ukrainian ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

On July 22, Türkiye, the U.N., Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul to reopen three Ukrainian ports for the export of Ukraine grain, which had been stuck for months due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its sixth month.

To oversee Ukrainian grain exports, the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul was officially launched on July 27, comprising of representatives from the three countries and the U.N. to enable safe transportation by merchant ships of commercial foodstuffs and fertilizers.

The JCC has allowed 36 ships to move from and to Ukraine for grain shipment between Aug. 1 and 15. According to official data, Ukraine has already sent 563,317 tons of food products from 21 ships departing from its ports.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres is scheduled to visit the JCC in Istanbul on Aug. 20.

Around twenty million tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine, as a result of the blockade imposed by Russia on Ukrainian ports after the start of the war on Feb. 24.

Egypt is the top wheat importer from Ukraine with Indonesia following, then comes Türkiye, Yemen and the Philippines.