The Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine confirmed this Friday that there are already ten ships loaded with cereals and ready to set sail from Ukrainian ports within the framework of the food export agreement reached between Russia and Ukraine with the mediation of Turkey and the United Nations.
The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, accompanied by representatives of the G7, Turkey and the UN, has verified ‘in situ’ the loading process of these first ships in the ports of Odessa and Chonomorsk, as detailed by the aforementioned ministry in a publication on his Telegram channel.
In total, 17 ships have already been loaded, ten of which are ready to set sail, thus beginning the first food exports from Ukrainian ports since the outbreak of the war, which began at the end of February by order of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
“For the first time since February 24, work has resumed in Ukraine’s seaports. The ships, which were loaded with grain during the winter, are ready to leave as soon as our partners, the United Nations and Turkey agree on a ‘humanitarian corridor’ in the direction of the Bosphorus,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov said.
Minister Kubrakov has valued Ukraine as “the guarantor of world food security”, and has stressed that kyiv has done “everything possible” to start grain exports as soon as possible.
Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations agreed last week on the departure of food ships from Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea to the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey, a country where a joint coordination center has been established that includes representatives of the three countries and the UN.
Ukraine pledged to guide ships through waters that have been mined while Russia promised not to target ships or certain port infrastructure of its neighboring country.
According to information provided by the Ukrainian authorities, a country considered the ‘breadbasin of Europe’, more than 20 million tons of grain blocked since the outbreak of the war are waiting to be exported.