The Razoni was the first ship to leave Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in mid-February. A team of officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN checked her cargo of 26,000 tonnes of corn.
Highlights
•Razoni, the first ship to have left Ukraine was extensively checked for three hours by JCC officials in Bosporus
•Ship then departed for Tripoli. The JCC plans to move 3 ships per day, but no ship has left Ukraine so far in 48 hours.
•An estimated 20 million tonnes of cargo are still on hold in Ukraine.
On Monday cargo ship Razoni left the Ukrainian port of Odesa with more than 26,000 tonnes of corn. It passed through the Bosporus coast on Wednesday and is en route to Lebanon. The UN said she was free to leave. Russia has blockaded Ukraine’s ports since it invaded the country on Friday. This has intensified a shortage of food grains all around the world.
The voyage was made possible by a Turkey and UN-brokered agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Under the agreement, both sides agreed to continue grain and fertilizer exports. So far this is a rare breakthrough in the long-drawn war of attrition between Moscow and Kyiv.
The Ukraine Ship Was Thoroughly Checked
The ship entered the Bosporus Strait at around 11:30 GMT. Before that she was thoroughly checked by Russian , Ukrainian, Turkish and UN authorities working at a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Instanbul.
“The team carried out a three-hour inspection and confirmed that the crew and cargo are authorized and consistent with the information JCC received before the vessel sailed for Odessa”, the UN said. “The joint inspection team had the opportunity to discuss with the crew and gain valuable information on the vessel’s journey. The JCC will use this voyage in its ongoing work on fine-tuning procedures and processes to continue the safe passage of commercial vessels across the Black Sea,” it added. Meanwhile, Ihor Ostash, Ukraine’s ambassador in Beirut says that Razoni will arrive in Tripoli in four to five days.
But this is just the beginning, Ukraine says it still has 17 vessels awaiting clearance to sail. These too will be checked by the JCC personnel in Istanbul. Even then there is a deficiency of trust between the two sides. Russia even launched two missiles on Odessa less than 24 hours after the deal was announced.
JCC will allow three ships a Day
After Razoni’s departure, an anonymous Turkish official said three ships may leave from the ports of Odessa every day. The members will extend the 120 days deal by a month if exports are not completed. However, the initial time period appears sufficient for the exports, the official said.
Meanwhile, members are planning more outbound movements from Ukraine on Wednesday. They have currently covered 27 ships under the deal, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. Denys Marchuk, Deputy Chair of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, said Ukraine would like to include ports in the Mykolaiv region in the deal. Ukraine had exported 5-6 million tonnes of grain via its ports before the war. But it is impossible to reach such levels now with the war going on and not all ports in operation, he said.
Ukraine is a major supplier of food grains all over the world, but a Russian blockade of its ports has prevented exports of late. An estimated 20 million tonnes of grains are still stuck in Ukrainian ports awaiting exports. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called Razoni’s journey a significant step. However, no other ships have left Ukraine in the past 48 hours.
(Inputs, BBC, Hindustan Times)
