For the first time since the beginning of the war, the vessel SACURA with grain and other food left the Odessa port Yuzhny and is heading to Italy. This was reported by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on Facebook.
Together with him, the ship ARIZONA set off for Turkey from the port of Chernomorsk today, they united in a caravan. In total, there are 60,000 tons of agricultural products on board both vessels, the agency clarifies. Taking into account the ships sent today, as part of the implementation of the agreements, 8 ships with Ukrainian food have already left the ports.
According to the Turkish Ministry of National Defense, the SACURA bulk carrier is carrying 11,000 tons of soybeans, and the ARIZONA ship is carrying 48,000 tons of corn to Iskenderun.
Moscow and Kiev signed an agreement on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports on July 22 in Istanbul with the participation of the UN. Grain will be delivered from three ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. The day after the signing of the treaty, Odessa was subjected to rocket fire, as a result of which a fire started in the local port. On July 31, during the night shelling of Nikolaev, the largest Ukrainian grain trader Aleksey Vadatursky and his wife Raisa were killed .
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, since the beginning of the war, Russia has stolen and exported hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain. Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said that Turkey buys the stolen grain from Russia. Also, a significant part of the stolen grain was transported across the Mediterranean on bulk carriers flying Russian flags to Syria. From there, the grain can be smuggled to the countries of the Middle East.