Zelenskyy visits port as Ukraine prepares to ship out grain

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has eze visited a Black Sea port as crews prepared terminals to export grain trapped by Russia’s five-month-old war, work that was inching forward a week after a deal was struck to allow critical food supplies to flow to millions of impoverished people facing hunger worldwide.

“The first vessel, the first ship is being loaded since the beginning of the war,” Zelenskyy, in his signature olive T-shirt, told reporters on Friday as he stood next to a Turkish-flagged ship at the Chernomorsk port in the Odesa region.

He said, however, that the departure of wheat and other grain will begin with several ships that were already loaded but could not leave Ukrainian ports after Russia invaded in late February.

Ukraine is a key global exporter of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, and the loss of those supplies has raised global food prices, threatened political instability and helped push more people into poverty and hunger in already vulnerable countries.

Moscow as blamed Ukraine for stalling shipments by mining the port waters.

Ukraine’s military is committed to the safety of ships, said Zelenskyy, adding that “it is important for us that Ukraine remains the guarantor of global food security”.
‘We are ready’

His unannounced visit to the port is part of a broader push by Ukraine to show the world that it is nearly ready to export millions of tonnes of grains after last week’s breakthrough agreements, which were brokered by Turkey and the United Nations and signed separately by Ukraine and Russia.

The sides agreed to facilitate the shipment of wheat and other grains from three Ukrainian ports through safe corridors on the Black Sea, as well as fertiliser and food from Russia.

But a Russian missile attack on Odesa hours after signing the deal has thrown Moscow’s commitment into question and raised new concerns about the safety of shipping crews, who also have to navigate waters strewn with explosive mines.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday emphasised the importance of maintaining a “link between taking grain out of Ukrainian ports and unblocking direct or indirect restrictions on the export of our grain, fertilisers and other goods to global markets”.

-Al Jazeera