12 August 2022; MEMO: Two more ships carrying wheat and corn departed from Ukrainian ports today under a deal to unblock Ukrainian grain exports, Turkiye's National Defence Ministry said.
The Belize-flagged ship Sormovsky carrying 3,050 tonnes of wheat left the Chornomorsk port destined for Tekirdag, northwestern Türkiye.
The other ship, Marshal Islands-flagged Star Laura, sailed from the Yuzhny port with 60,000 tonnes of corn for Iran.
On 22 July, Turkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul to reopen three Ukrainian Black Sea ports for exporting Ukrainian grain stuck due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which is now in its sixth month.
READ: Ukraine crisis raises concern in Arab world over wheat supplies
To oversee the process, the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul was officially launched on 27 July, comprising representatives from the three countries and the UN to enable safe transportation of commercial foodstuffs and fertilizers by merchant ships.
The first ship departed Ukraine on 1 August under the Turkiye-brokered deal.
Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and delivery disruptions caused by the war have pushed prices up around the world.
