Kiev and Moscow authorities celebrate the implementation of the agreements concluded on July 22, which will allow the departure of another 16 ships immobilized due to the invasion
Monday at 9:15 am, the first cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain since the start of the war left Odessa port in February. This said Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, a signatory on behalf of Kiev of the grain export agreement signed in Istanbul on July 22.
The ship that carries the vital food is the ‘Razoni’, flying the flag of Sierra Leone. His destination is the port of Tripoli, in the north of Lebanon. It carries 26,000 tons of Ukrainian maize on board. According to Kubrakov, another 16 ships have been immobilized in Odessa since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, 10 of which are ready to leave with grains soon.
Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of grain and food. It represents 42% of the sunflower oil, 16% of the maize and 9% of the wheat sold on the world market. Kubrakov pointed out through his Facebook account that “Ukraine is the fourth largest grain exporter in the world, so the ability to send it through our ports is a huge success in ensuring global food security.”
“Today Ukraine and its partners are taking another step forward to prevent world hunger. Unblocking the ports will bring at least a billion dollars (about 980 million euros) in profits for the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan the crops for next year,” he emphasized. The Ukrainian minister was grateful to Turkey and the UN that they “continued to work on the preparations for export despite the difficulties.” “With the help of our partners, we plan to reach full export capacity for agricultural products soon,” added Kubrakov.
The ships will have to cross the western sector of the Black Sea, cross the Bosphorus and reach Istanbul, where the Tripartite Coordination and Distribution Center (Ukraine, Turkey and Russia) is installed, which will ensure compliance with the agreement and deal with the incidents that can happen. This entity will also have the responsibility of checking that the ships returning to Ukraine to pick up more grain have no weapons on board. The inspection will be carried out by Turkish troops in the presence of Russian representatives, as Kiev rejected that the surveillance is only carried out by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov described Monday as “very positive” the departure of the first ship carrying Ukrainian grain. “This is very positive news as it will be a good opportunity to check the effectiveness” of what has been agreed in Istanbul. In his words: “we hope that the agreements are applied by all parties and that the mechanisms work effectively.”
In addition to Odessa, the Ukrainian ports Chermomorsk and Pivdenni will be used. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by representatives from the G7, the UN and Turkey, personally oversaw the preparations and process of loading the ships in Odessa and Chernomorsk, the Ministry of Infrastructure in Kiev said at the time.
On July 22, two separate agreements were signed in Istanbul with Turkey and the United Nations for grain exports, Ukraine on the one hand and Russia on the other. Kiev promised to guide the ships safely and avoid minefields, while Russia agreed not to attack Ukrainian cargo ships and port infrastructure. However, the next day it fired several missiles into the port of Odessa, claiming that the targets hit were military in nature. “The attack on the port of Odessa is a spat by the Kremlin head, Vladimir Putin, in the faces of the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukraine’s foreign spokesman said. day., Oleg Nikolenko.
There is also the circumstance that Oleksiy Vadaturski, Oleksiy Vadaturski, just died in the company of his wife in a bomb attack in Mykolaiv. This was denounced on Sunday by the region’s governor, Vitali Kim. “Hero of Ukraine, the general manager of the Nibulon company Oleksiy Vadaturski and his wife, Raisa Mikhailovna Vadaturska, died tragically on Saturday night as a result of the shelling of the city,” Kim said.
In June 2020, Forbes Ukraine placed Vadaturski in 15th place on the list of the richest Ukrainians, with an estimated wealth of about $450 million. The businessman and his wife were the only fatalities in the weekend attacks on Mykolaiv, the most intense since the start of the Russian invasion, according to the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkévich, who does not consider the couple’s deaths accidental. rule out that they could be the intended target of the Russian bombs.
Source: La Verdad
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