First grain ship from Ukraine cleared to sail to Lebanon
The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine has left Istanbul and sailed to Lebanon.
Ukraine said 17 other vessels were “loaded and waiting permission to leave”, but there was no word yet on when they could depart.
A joint civilian inspection team spent three hours checking the cargo and crew of the Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, which left Odesa on Monday carrying Ukrainian corn, a UN statement said.
The Joint Coordination Centre team included officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations. The parties signed deals last month to create safe shipping corridors to export Ukraine’s desperately needed agricultural products as the nation's war with Russia grinds on.
The holdup of shipments because of the war has added to rising food prices and threatened hunger and political instability in developing nations.
With its cargo checked and approved in Turkey, the Razoni is now bound for the Lebanese port of Tripoli.
The Razoni, which the United Nations says is carrying 26,527 tons of corn, was checked to ensure that it was only loaded with grain, fertilizer and other food items.
Incoming vessels will be checked to ensure they are not carrying weapons.
Although US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Razoni’s journey a “significant step,” no other ships have left from Ukraine in the past 48 hours. Officials on all sides have given no explanation for that delay.
A UN statement said three Ukrainian ports are due to resume exports of millions of tons of wheat, corn and other crops. It said inspectors “gained valuable information” from the Razoni’s crew about its voyage through the Black Sea maritime humanitarian corridor.
The Joint Coordination Centre is “fine-tuning procedures,” it said.
Pictures tweeted by the Turkish Ministry of National Defence showed an inspector reaching into the Razoni’s open hold and touching some of its cargo: 26,527 tons of corn for chicken feed. The Razoni’s horn rang out as the inspectors left the ship, and it then headed off to Lebanon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says grain exports will reduce Russian authorities’ ability to extract concessions from the west.
He said: “They are losing one of the opportunities to terrorise the world."
Russia's war against Ukraine has also disrupted energy supplies in much of Europe.
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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.
“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.
Amid the relentless onslaught by Moscow’s forces, President Zelenskyy issued an order to all those remaining in the country’s embattled Donetsk region to evacuate as soon as possible.
The compulsory evacuation effort aims to take 200,000-220,000 people out of the eastern province.