The UN coordination center, which oversees the implementation of the grain deal between Ukraine, Russia and host country Turkey, will open its doors on Wednesday with a small ceremony, according to the Turkish defense ministry. It must guarantee safe transport by sea of Ukrainian grain.
According to Turkish media, the center will be located on the campus of the National Defense University, about 7 kilometers north of the center of Istanbul. The coordination center, the ‘grain bureau’, is reportedly headed by a Turkish admiral. A total of twenty delegates would be employed.
Contact will only be necessary in emergency situations between Ukrainians and Russians, who work separately from each other. The center will therefore be operational from Wednesday. According to the authorities in Ukraine, the first shipment of Ukrainian grain may already leave the port of Chernomorsk, on the southern edge of Odessa, on Wednesday.
20 million tons
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to get the belligerent countries to load Ukrainian grain that could not be exported through combat into ships under the supervision of the coordination center and transport it across the Black Sea to the Bosphorus and world markets. The parties involved signed an agreement about this in a palace on the Bosphorus on Friday.
The two warring parties together account for about a third of the world’s grain production. At least 20 million tons are waiting to be shipped in Ukrainian ports. The war drives up food prices and causes food shortages.
cruise missiles
The deal was already overshadowed on Saturday by acts of war in Ukraine’s main port, Odessa. Russians have bombarded the port with cruise missiles, Ukrainians say. The Kremlin reported an attack on a Ukrainian naval vessel and ammunition depots.