Three ships — the Navi Star, the Rojen and the Polarnet — have departed from Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, carrying 57,000 tons of corn, the country’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Friday.
The ships will travel to Turkey, the United Kingdom and Ireland, respectively.
“We expect that the security guarantees of our partners from the UN and Turkey will continue to work, and food exports from our ports will become stable and predictable for all market participants,” Kubrakov said.
“In order to make that possible we plan to ensure the ports’ ability to handle more than 100 vessels per month.”
He added that Ukraine has already received applications from ship owners “who are ready to enter our ports for loading,” with the first arrival expected on Saturday.
Earlier this week, the first shipment of grain was allowed to leave Ukraine since the war began. The shipment left under a UN-brokered export deal, after Russia’s months-long blockade of Ukrainian ports worsened a global food supply crisis.
