NEW YORK / ODESSA (dpa-AFX) – According to an agreement between Kyiv and Moscow, the first ships with grain on board should soon leave Ukraine, according to the UN. UN emergency aid coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Thursday in New York that some already loaded freighters are ready to depart from the Black Sea ports. “And we had been waiting for that to happen, even today or tomorrow.”
So far, the exact corridor for safe transport through partially mined areas has not yet been finally determined by the joint control center of the warring parties, the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul. However, Griffiths emphasized that he believes this will happen quickly. After that, exports from the ports should eventually reach the pre-war level of about five million tons per month.
On Friday, wartime opponents Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement with the UN and Turkey to allow grain exports from Ukraine from three ports. According to Ukrainian sources, more than 20 million tons of grain from last year’s harvest are still waiting to be exported. After the Russian invasion at the end of February, port operations were suspended for security reasons – Moscow was accused of blocking the grain. The UN increasingly fears hunger crises in the world due to the lack of grain deliveries.
In the Joint Coordination Center (JCC), the representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN should make the necessary decisions together and with equal rights, Griffiths said. This also includes direct communication between Russians and Ukrainians./scb/DP/he