kyiv announced it on Wednesday, despite Russia’s threats against any ships sailing to or from Ukrainian ports.
“The container ship ‘Joseph Schulte’ (…) left the port of Odessa and navigates along the temporary corridor established for civil ships,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov was quoted as saying in a statement.
The minister specified that is the first ship to leave the strategic port of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, since mid-July, when Russia withdrew from the agreement that allowed Ukrainian grains to be exported through the country’s southern ports from mid-2022.
However, after the agreement expired in July, Russia warned that any ship sailing to or from Ukrainian ports will be considered as a military objective.
kyiv responded by stating that it would also consider vessels sailing to or from Russian-occupied Ukrainian ports as targets.
On August 10, however, Ukraine announced that had opened “temporary” corridors in the Black Sea -controlled to a large extent by the Russian navy- to allow the circulation of the ships that transport their grains.
At 16:00 (local time) the ship was sailing bordering the Ukrainian coast and was heading towards the Turkish port of Ambarli, in the Sea of Marmara, according to a maritime monitoring website.
As an example of the risks, during the weekend a Russian warship fired warning shots at a freighter heading for IzmailDanube port.
This port has become one of the main exit routes for Ukrainian agricultural products since Moscow ended the agreement on the export of grains and cereals, a source of income for Kiev, in mid-July.
On Tuesday night, the Russian army attacked port infrastructures on the Danube with drones.
“As a result of enemy attacks on one of the Danube ports, grain warehouses were damaged,” Odessa regional governor Oleg Kiper announced.
Romania strongly condemned the new attacks on Wednesday attacks against the Danube port infrastructure, following several attacks on the gates of this NATO country in recent weeks.
Ukrainian forces announced that they had shot down 13 drones overnight in the Odessa and Mikolaiv regions.
Ukraine’s war-torn economy depends on the export of agricultural products. These sales, like Russia’s grain sales, are vital to the world’s supply of wheat, alfalfa, sunflowers and other foods on which poor countries depend.
the war front
On the war front, Ukraine claimed new achievements of its counteroffensive to recture areas occupied by Russia, announcing the recture of the town of Urozhaine, in the eastern province of Donetsk.
Urozhaine, which had about 1,000 inhabitants before the war, is located near Staromaiorske, another town Ukraine claims to have recently retaken.
Also on Wednesday, the Russian military said it shot down three drones over the southwestern region of Kaluga and blamed Ukraine for the attack. No damage or casualties were reported.
EFE, RFI and AFP
Source: Clarin
