First grain ship from Ukraine cleared to sail to Lebanon following end of blockade

The first cargo ship to leave Ukraine during five months of full-scale war has cleared inspection in the Black Sea and sailed towards the Mediterranean, as Ukrainian officials warned that Russia may be about to launch new attempts to seize southern and eastern parts of the country.

“The first shipment of over 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian food under a Black Sea export deal was cleared to proceed today, towards its final destination in Lebanon,” said a joint co-ordination centre (JCC) in Istanbul that is overseeing the restart of shipping from Ukraine’s ports.

“A joint civilian inspection team, comprising officials from the Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, visited the merchant vessel Razoni this morning ... carried out a three-hour inspection and confirmed that crew and cargo are as authorised and consistent with the information the JCC received before the vessel sailed from Odesa.”

Turkey and the UN brokered deals with Kyiv and Moscow to end Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports, which coincided with an EU decision to ease some sanctions against Russia to facilitate export of agricultural products and fertiliser and related transactions.

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Ukraine hopes to earn at least €10 billion from export of about 20 million tonnes of grain that were trapped in the country by Russia’s full invasion on February 24th, and the UN says it will also help ease food price inflation and fears of hunger in parts of Asia and Africa.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said one shipment of grain amounted to “nothing” for an economy that was “in a coma” because of the war.

“But we hope it’s a tendency that will continue,” he added.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the departure of the Razoni from the Black Sea was “a significant step, which raises hope of bringing the millions of tonnes of grain stuck at Ukraine’s ports to those facing food insecurity around the world”.

“But this is only a first step,” he said. “Russia must also end its attacks that are rendering farmland in Ukraine unusable and destroying agricultural infrastructure. As long as Russia continues its aggression, the Ukrainian people and the world’s most vulnerable will continue to suffer its effects.”

Ukraine says its military is restricting Russia to slow and costly gains in the eastern Donbas area, but officials warned on Wednesday of signs that Moscow’s military was preparing to intensify attacks on the eastern city of Kharkiv and in the southern Kherson region, which it already partly controls.

“In recent days the occupiers are spreading news about a possible repeat attack on Kharkiv. I assure you — we are ready for any actions by the enemy,” said Oleh Synehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, which Russia failed to seize earlier this year.

“Our protectors reliably hold the defences, and do not allow the enemy to move forward,” he added.

The military command for Ukraine’s south said Russia was “creating a strike force ... to prevent a breakthrough of our troops, and is planning counter-offensive actions to reach the administrative border of the Kherson region”.