Informed sources claimed today (Friday) that a Ukrainian grain ship is scheduled to leave the port of Odessa today (Friday), for the first time since the outbreak of the war. “The grain ship is supposed to leave today, unless something unexpected happens,” they told the Russian “Sputnik” agency.
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At the same time, President Zelensky confirmed during his visit to the port of Chornomorsk that the first grain ship from Ukraine “is ready and waiting to leave the port”. Officials said another 17 ships were already loaded with 600,000 tons of cargo. The UN aid chief made it clear that exports could safely resume only when approval of the route through the Black Sea was completed.
The destination of the first ship was not yet clear, but the UN aid chief said that Somalia is a priority. Eight regions of the country are at risk of famine. President Zelensky said that it is important for Ukraine to ensure global food security: “While someone who blocks the Black Sea and takes the The lives of other countries, we give them a chance to survive.”
Earlier this month, Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul signed two separate agreements with Turkey and the United Nations on the export of grain and agricultural products through the Black Sea. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, emphasized that “the signing of the food deal agreement between Russia and the United Nations highlights the artificial attempts which the West did to blame Russia for the problems of exporting grain to world markets.”
A senior UN official confirmed that representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN will inspect ships arriving in Ukraine to make sure they are free of weapons. The agreement also provides for the export of grains, food and fertilizers through the Black Sea from three ports. The UN will also facilitate the export of Russian food products and fertilizers that have been restricted due to Western sanctions.
Guterres said at the signing ceremony that such a deal between two countries at a time of war is “unprecedented” and that it will “bring relief to developing countries on the brink of bankruptcy and the most vulnerable people on the brink of starvation.” He also noted that the agreement “will help stabilize global food prices, which were already at record levels even before the war – a real nightmare for developing countries.”
The signed initiative paves the way for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three major Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. “Delivering grain and food stocks to world markets will help bridge the global food supply gap and reduce the pressure on high prices,” Guterres noted. The agreement is valid for 120 days and can be automatically extended without the need for further negotiations. The UN believes that the period of the agreement will be enough for the delivery of about 25 million tons of wheat and other grains that have been stuck in Ukrainian ports.
Russia ranks first in wheat exports in the world, as it represents 18% of world exports, worth 7.9 billion dollars, and Ukraine represents 7%. In other words, the two countries account for about a third of the world’s wheat supply.
Some developing and poor countries in Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa are heavily dependent on Russian and Ukrainian wheat. The lack of grain exports from Ukrainian ports has worsened the global food crisis. Before the war in Ukraine, most of the Ukrainian wheat, corn and sunflower oil passed through Black Sea ports. Now, many of those ports are under Russian control or besieged by Ukrainian mines, while their infrastructure is damaged.
Ukrainian cargo ship (Photo: REUTERS/Vincent Mundy)From the first day of the beginning of the war, Ukraine closed its ports containing about 20 million tons of grain, which are now stuck in Ukraine’s silos, according to Reuters. This shutdown led to the collapse of Ukraine’s supply chains, and by the middle of the year at least 20 million tons of grain produced in 2021 were stuck in the country, at the same time as the beginning of the wheat harvest.
Some of the wheat, corn and barley were transported overland to Romania, Poland and the ports of the Baltic Sea. The total export of grain in June amounted to only 1.4 million tons, compared to about 5 million tons per month in previous years, while efforts to increase the volume of transportation were hampered by the lack of fuel for trucks and the energy crisis in Europe.