This content was published on 01 August 2022 – 09:43
(Update with more statements and other data)
Istanbul, Aug 1 (EFE).- The first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain set sail from the port of Odessa and is sailing towards Lebanon, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.
“It has been agreed that the ship Razoni, which sails under the flag of Sierra Leone and carries a cargo of corn to Lebanon, will leave on August 1 at 8:30 local time (5:30 GMT) from the port of Odessa,” it reads. a statement released by Defense on its website.
“As part of the shipment of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, the first ship sailed from Ukraine. We hope that this process will continue without interruption or problems,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu tweeted around 7:40 GMT.
Maritime tracking programs such as Vesselfinder and MarineTraffic show that the cargo ship Razoni started to leave the dock almost an hour late and just before 7:00 GMT passed the lighthouse that marks the entrance to the port.
According to the aforementioned programs, the ship is scheduled to arrive in Istanbul at 18:00 GMT on Tuesday, tomorrow.
For his part, Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the ship is expected in Istanbul on Tuesday at 12:00 GMT.
“The ship will be anchored off the coast of Istanbul at around 15:00 (local time) for a joint inspection,” Akar told Anadolu news agency.
The United Nations also welcomed the departure of the ship, says a statement released by the spokesperson for the agency’s secretary general, Stéphane Dujarric, confirming that the ship, with a cargo of 26,527 tons of corn, is headed for the Lebanese port of Tripoli.
The trip takes place within the framework of the agreement signed on July 22 in Istanbul between Moscow, kyiv, Ankara and the United Nations, to allow the safe export of Ukrainian grain, blocked since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.
A coordination center established in Istanbul, with delegates from the three signatory countries and the United Nations, will be in charge of supervising the route of the ships and inspecting the cargo.
According to the Turkish authorities, there is no danger of floating mines in the route of the ships.EFE
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