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KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 1 (AP) \u2014 The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain set out from the port of Odesa on Monday under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that is expected to release large stores of Ukrainian crops to foreign markets and ease a growing food crisis.<\/p>\n
The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni left Odesa carrying over 26,000 tons of corn destined for Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first grain ship since Russian aggression has left port,\u201d said Ukraine\u2019s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov on Twitter, posting a video of the long vessel sounding its horn as its slowly headed out to sea.<\/p>\n
Posting separately on Facebook, Kubrakov said Ukraine is the fourth-largest corn exporter in the world, \u201cso the possibility of exporting it via ports is a colossal success in ensuring global food security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday Ukraine, together with partners, takes another step to prevent world hunger,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hailed the ship\u2019s departure as \u201cvery positive,\u201d saying it would help test the \u201cefficiency of the mechanisms that were agreed during the talks in Istanbul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, said the Razoni was expected to dock Tuesday afternoon in Istanbul at the entrance of the Bosporus, where joint teams of Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. officials would board it for inspections.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Turkey\u2019s state-run Anadolu Agency, Akar warned that the global food crisis threatened to trigger \u201ca serious wave of migration from Africa to Europe and to Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n
The corn is destined for Lebanon, a Middle East nation in the grips of what the World Bank has described as one of the world\u2019s worst financial crises in more than 150 years. A 2020 explosion at its main port in Beirut shattered its capital city and destroyed grain silos there, a part of which collapsed following a weekslong fire just Sunday.<\/p>\n
Lebanon mostly imports wheat from Ukraine but also buys its corn to make cooking oil and to produce animal feed.<\/p>\n
The Turkish defense ministry said other ships would also depart Ukraine\u2019s ports through the safe corridors in line with deals signed in Istanbul on July 22, but did not provide further details.<\/p>\n
Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements with Turkey and the U.N. clearing the way for Ukraine \u2014 one of the world\u2019s key breadbaskets \u2014 to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural goods that have been stuck in Black Sea ports because of Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n
The deals also allow Russia to exports grain and fertilizers.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s defense minister praised a joint coordination center staffed by Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. officials as a venue where opposing sides can engage with each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problems they have are obvious, there is a war. But it is the only place where the two sides are able to come together,\u201d Akar said. \u201cDespite the ups and downs, there is a good environment for dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s infrastructure ministry said that 16 more ships, all blocked since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, were waiting their turn in the ports of Odesa.<\/p>\n
Kubrakov said the shipments would also help Ukraine\u2019s war-shattered economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlocking ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for next year,\u201d Kubrakov said.<\/p>\n
The United Nations welcomed the development, saying in a statement that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes the shipments will \u201cbring much-needed stability and relief to global food security especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than five months of war, the horn of the cargo ship sounding as it set out to sea delighted Olena Vitalievna, a city resident.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, life begins to move forward and there are some changes in a positive direction,\u201d she said. \u201cIn general, the port should live its own life because Odesa is a port city. We live here, we want everything to work for us, everything to bustle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the resumption of the grain shipments came as fighting raged elsewhere in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s presidential office said that at least three civilians were killed and another 16 wounded by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko repeated a call for all residents to evacuate, emphasizing the need to evacuate about 52,000 children still left in the region.<\/p>\n
In Kharkiv, two people were wounded by a Russian strike in the morning, one who was struck while waiting for a bus and the other when a Russian shell exploded near an apartment building.<\/p>\n
The southern city of Mykolaiv also faced repeated shelling that ruined a building of a hospital unit and damaged ambulances, according to Gov. Vitaliy Kim. Three civilians were wounded in the Russian shelling elsewhere in the city, he said.<\/p>\n
Soon after the grain shipment deal was signed on July 22, a Russian missile targeted Odesa. Analysts warned that the continuing fighting could threaten the grain deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe danger remains: The Odesa region has faced constant shelling and only regular supplies could prove the viability of the agreements signed,\u201d said Volodymyr Sidenko, an expert with the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think-tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe departure of the first vessel doesn\u2019t solve the food crisis, it\u2019s just the first step that could also be the last if Russia decides to continue attacks in the south.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV, Ukraine, Aug 1 (AP) \u2014 The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain set out from the port of Odesa on Monday under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that is expected to release large stores of Ukrainian crops to foreign markets and ease a growing food crisis. The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}