"Riva Glory" ship inspected by the İstanbul coordination center on August 9. (Photo: AA)
Ukraine exported more than 370,000 tons of grain a week after a quadripartite agreement, the United Nations has announced.
Twelve vessels carrying grain and other foodstuffs have been authorized to leave Ukraine's ports, the interim coordinator for the UN at the Joint Coordination Center, Frederick Kenney, told reporters in New York.
"We have seen tremendous interest from ship owners in terms of their willingness to make this transit," he said. "We're expecting to see a big uptick in applications."
Several empty grain vessels are sitting in Türkiye's waters waiting to arrange contracts. Once their deals are arranged, they will be transiting northbound, he added.
The vessels departing Ukraine's ports were loaded with corn and other foodstuffs and the first wheat shipment is expected next week.
"We actually have cleared the first ship inbound that's going to be picking up the wheat according to our records and that should occur sometime next week," said Kenney.
Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen the ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny for grain that had been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, now in its sixth month.
On August 1, the first ship that left Ukraine since the start of the war, the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo vessel Razoni, departed from Odessa carrying over 26,500 tons of corn, got security clearance after inspection in İstanbul.
How the Ukraine grain deal worksRussia's invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24 led to a grain export crisis from Ukraine, one of the largest grain exporting countries in the world. Ukraine accused Russia of stealing the grain in the places it occupied in Ukraine. Turkey is among the places where the stolen grain is sold, according to officials from Ukraine. Russia denied stealing Ukraine's grain and says the disruption in the grain shipment is caused by the naval mines laid by Ukraine off the Black Sea coasts. After diplomatic consultations, Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen three ports — Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny — for grain that has been stuck for months because of the invasion. On July 27, a coordination center to implment the deal opened in İstanbul. The duty of the center is to provide safe sea transportation of grain and similar food products to be exported from Ukraine. It consists of five representatives – both military and civilian – each from Türkiye, Russia, Ukraine and the UN. The center will register and monitor the departure of commercial ships via satellite, internet, and other communication means, and will carry out all its activities in coordination with the parties and the UN. The ships will be inspected by joint inspection teams at locations deemed suitable for loading at Ukrainian ports and upon arrival at ports in Türkiye. Nearly 4,900 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war on February 24, according to UN figures. Over 15 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including more than 8.4 million that have fled to other countries. |
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