YUZHNE, Ukraine — The first
UN-chartered vessel set to transport grain from Ukraine
under a deal to relieve a global food crisis was loaded with 23,000 tonnes of
wheat on Sunday and is ready to depart, Kyiv announced.
اضافة اعلان
The MV Brave
Commander will “head to Africa” and “
Ethiopia will be the last country where
the 23,000-tonne cargo of wheat will be delivered”, Ukrainian Infrastructure
Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said at the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in Yuzhne
city to oversee the ship’s loading.
“I hope that other
ships chartered by the
World Food Program (WFP) will come to our ports. I hope
there will soon be two, three more ships,” Kubrakov added.
The minister later
said on Twitter that the ship was fully loaded and ready to leave but did not
say when it would depart.
The MV Brave
Commander docked at the Pivdennyi port, close to Odessa, on Friday. According
to the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry, it will leave for Djibouti from where
the grain will then be sent to Ethiopia.
It will be the
first shipment of food aid since Kyiv and Moscow agreed a deal brokered by the
UN and
Turkey last month to unblock Black Sea grain deliveries after Russia’s
February invasion of Ukraine.
The agreement
lifted a Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports and established safe corridors
through the naval mines laid by Kyiv.
“We are definitely
planning other ships to leave the ports of Ukraine, to help people around the
world. ... This should just be the first of many humanitarian ships to leave
the ports,” Marianne Ward, WFP deputy country director in Ukraine, told
journalists.
The first
commercial ship carrying grain left on August 1 and in total, 16 vessels have
departed from Ukraine since the July deal, according to Kyiv.
But no UN vessel
carrying humanitarian food assistance has set sail.
Ukraine and Russia
are two of the world’s biggest grain exporters.
The WFP says a
record 345 million people in 82 countries face acute food insecurity and up to
50 million people in 45 countries are on the brink of famine and risk being
tipped over the edge without humanitarian support.
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