Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian experts inspected on Wednesday near Istanbul the ship carrying the first grain shipment exported by Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, before the cargo ship resumed its journey to destination from Lebanon. Inspection of the Razoni lasted just under an hour and a half, AFP found. The freighter then continued on its way, entering the northern entrance to the Bosphorus in the early afternoon.
This inspection marked the end of a “test phase” of operations to implement the international agreement signed in Istanbul in July to curb the world food crisis, said the secretariat of the Joint Coordination Center. It took place in accordance with the wishes of Russia, which wanted to be sure of the nature of the cargo.
The ship, flying the flag of Sierra Leone, left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea on Monday with 26,000 tonnes of maize bound for Tripoli, Lebanon.
According to kyiv, 16 other boats loaded with grain are waiting to leave Odessa, where before the war 60% of the country’s port activity was concentrated.
The agreement signed on July 22 by Russia and Ukraine, thanks to the mediation of Turkey and under the aegis of the United Nations, allows the resumption of shipments to world markets of Ukrainian cereals blocked since the Russian invasion. The document provides in particular for the establishment of secure corridors which will make it possible for merchant ships to circulate in the Black Sea.
A similar agreement signed simultaneously guarantees Russia the export of its agricultural products and fertilizers, despite Western sanctions.
The Turks hope that these agreements will lead to ceasefire talks between Moscow and kyiv.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to press for an armistice when he meets Vladimir Putin in Sochi on the Black Sea on Friday. “We discussed to see if the grain agreement could be an opportunity for a lasting ceasefire,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed on Wednesday after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Cambodia.
Russian missile strike
On the military ground, the Russian army bombarded the city of Chuhouïv, in the northeast of Ukraine, killing one person and injuring two, announced on Facebook a police official of the Kharkiv region, Sergey Bolvinov. . He said the person killed and one of the injured are “Russian citizens”.
Kharkiv, the second Ukrainian city, close to the Russian border, was the target of two strikes overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday from Russian territory, according to regional authorities.
In addition, the Russian army announced on Wednesday that it had destroyed a depot of foreign weapons in the Lviv region, in western Ukraine, with “high-precision missiles”. In June, Moscow had already claimed to have destroyed an arms depot delivered by NATO in this region relatively spared from the bombardments.