Four More Cargo Ships to Depart Ukraine

According to Turkish and Ukrainian officials, four ships carrying Ukrainian food left Ukrainian Black Marine ports on Sunday as part of an agreement to open the nation's sea exports. More than 160,000 tons of corn and foodstuff were loaded into the four bulk carriers.

A Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, staffed by Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and UN employees, is in charge of overseeing the restart of grain shipments.

The arrangement was mediated by the UN and Turkey last month following UN warnings of potential famine breakouts in some areas of the world due to a suspension of grain exports from Ukraine that had constrained supply and driven up prices. According to the agreement, ships departing Ukraine are examined by teams made up of representatives from the three nations and the UN to ensure they are carrying only grain, fertilizer, or food and no other goods. To make sure they don't have any weapons on board, boats coming in are inspected.

The JCC said late on Saturday that it had approved the departure of five additional boats overall, one of which was headed in, and four of which were headed out of Chornomorsk and Odesa with more than 160,000 metric tons of foodstuff. 

According to the Turkish military ministry, the ships that sailed out of Ukrainian ports were Glory, carrying more than 65,000 tons of corn for Istanbul, and Riva Wind, carrying more than 40,000 tons of corn for Iskenderun. The other two ships, according to the report, were Star Helena and Mustafa Necati. The first four ships under the deal departed from Ukraine.