The first ship carrying grain exported from Ukraine reached its final destination in Turkey on Monday, Kyiv announced, while another ship that was scheduled to dock on the Lebanese shores was delayed on Sunday.
The Turkish cargo ship “Polarnet” left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on Friday, loaded with 12,000 tons of corn, and arrived at its destination following inspection by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul in accordance with the terms of the international agreement signed in July, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced in a statement.
The statement quoted Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov as saying, “This first successful experiment … allows us to be optimistic regarding the future prospects,” thanking the Polarnet crew for being the first to test this mechanism.
Russia and Ukraine have signed separate agreements, sponsored by Turkey and the United Nations, that allow the export of Ukrainian grain despite the war, and Russian agricultural products despite Western sanctions.
On the other hand, the cargo ship Razzoni did not reach its destination on the shores of Tripoli (Lebanon) on Sunday, as was expected.
The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which departed the first Monday of August from the port of Odessa, is carrying 26,000 tons of maize.
The Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon said that “the final buyer in Lebanon refused to accept the shipment due to the delay in the delivery terms (five months).”
The embassy added, in a tweet on the “Twitter” website, that “the sender is therefore looking for another recipient. It may be in Lebanon or in another country.”
Eight ships have left Ukrainian ports since the agreement was signed, according to the Ukrainian authorities, which indicated that an average of three to five ships per day is expected in the next two weeks.
