2 more ships carrying over 63,000 tons of grain leave Ukraine

ISTANBUL

Two more ships carrying wheat and corn departed Ukrainian ports on Friday under a deal to unblock Ukrainian grain exports, Türkiye's National Defense Ministry said.

The Belize-flagged ship Sormovsky carrying 3,050 tons 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 tons of corn for Iran.

On July 22, Türkiye, 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.

To oversee the process, the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul was officially launched on July 27, 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 Aug. 1 under the Türkiye-brokered deal.