Inspectors have boarded the first cargo ship to leave Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbour after the vessel anchored off Istanbul.
Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN officials have been checking if the grain shipment is in accordance with an agreement signed last month by Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukraine’s agricultural exports and ease the global food crisis.
The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which the United Nations says is carrying 26,527 tons of corn, set sail on Monday from Odesa on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. Its final destination is Lebanon.
The ship was anchored on Wednesday near the mouth of the Bosporus Straits that connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and on to the Aegean Sea.
Inspectors, some wearing white helmets, headed out to the ship in two boats, escorted by the Turkish coast guard. Turkish media said there were about 20 inspectors.
The checks aim to ensure that incoming vessels are not carrying weapons and that outgoing ones are bearing only grain, fertiliser or related food items, not any other commodities.
More ships from Ukraine are expected to set out in the coming days, raising hope that world food shortages can be alleviated.
Some 27 vessels have been waiting in three Ukrainian ports with cargo and signed contracts, ready to go, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
An estimated 20 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since the start of war. The UN-brokered agreement last month to release the grain calls for the establishment of safe corridors through the mined waters outside Ukraine’s ports.
The hold-up of shipments because of the war has worsened rising food prices worldwide and threatened hunger and political instability in developing nations.
Most of the grain stuck in Ukraine is to feed livestock, according to David Laborde, an expert at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.
Only six million tons is wheat, and just half of that is for human consumption, Mr Laborde said. He said the Razoni is loaded with chicken feed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the resumption of grain exports will reduce Russian authorities’ ability to extract concessions from the West.
“They are losing one of the opportunities to terrorise the world,” he said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has also disrupted energy supplies in western Europe, with Moscow drastically cutting how much it sends amid fears it could cut off all supplies.
Meanwhile, the UN nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and urgent steps are needed to avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the south-eastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their February 24. invasion of Ukraine.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
He issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex.
