Three more grain ships leave Ukraine: Türkiye

ANKARA

Three more ships loaded with grains and foodstuffs left Ukrainian ports on Aug. 5, while one empty ship left Istanbul after inspection and sailed for Ukraine, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has said.

“Our activities continue as planned until now, as stated in the agreements,” the minister told reporters.

The Barbados-flagged Fulmar S was inspected in Istanbul on Aug. 5 and is destined for Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port.

The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) has authorized the departure of three vessels from Ukraine, two from Chornomorsk and one from Odesa, carrying a total of 58,041 tons of corn through the maritime humanitarian corridor under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

The three ships that left Ukrainian ports are M/V Polarnet, anchored in Chornomorsk port, with a cargo of 12,000 MT of corn destined to Karasu, Türkiye; M/V Navistar, anchored in Odesa port, with a cargo of 33,000 MT of corn with destination Ringaskiddy, Ireland; and M/V Rojen, anchored in Chornomorsk port, with a cargo of 13,041 MT corn destined to Teesport, U.K.

The departure of the ships comes after the first grain shipment since the start of the war left Ukraine earlier this week. It crossed the Black Sea under the breakthrough wartime deal, passed inspection on Aug. 3 in Istanbul and then headed to Lebanon.

Ukraine is one of the world’s main breadbaskets, and the stocks of grain trapped were exacerbating a sharp rise in food prices and raising fears of a global hunger crisis.

While tens of thousands of tons of grains are now making their way out with these latest shipments, it’s still a fraction of the 20 million tons of grains that Ukraine says are trapped in the country’s silos and ports and which must be shipped out in order to make space for this year’s harvest.

Officials from Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the U.N. make up the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) that oversees the deal signed in Istanbul last month.

The JCC team said in a statement that the first ship’s successful passage offered “proof of concept” that the agreement can hold, testing multi-ship operations in the corridor, including an inbound ship.

The deal aims to create safe Black Sea shipping corridors to export Ukraine’s desperately needed agricultural products. Checks on ships by inspectors seek to ensure that outbound cargo ships carry only grain, fertilizer, or food and not any other commodities and that inbound ships are not carrying weapons.