The first foreign cargo ship since the start of the war has arrived in Ukraine, where it will be loaded with Ukrainian grain for export, the country’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Saturday, August 6.

The Fulmar S ship under the Barbados flag docked in the port of Chernomorsk, he said. The day before the dry cargo ship passed inspection in Istanbul. The arrival of the first foreign ship to Ukraine became possible after the conclusion between Moscow and Kyiv of an agreement on the resumption of grain exports through the Black Sea.

“We can say that thanks to the efforts of the President of Ukraine, the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Infrastructure, as well as our partners in the UN and Turkey, a ‘grain corridor’ for entry and exit in Ukraine’s ports has been launched,” said Kubrakov.

Ukraine now expects to reach a monthly transshipment volume at sea ports of 3 million tonnes of agricultural products and receive three to five ships a day, the minister said. “To this end, we expect the biggest Ukrainian port – Yuzhny – to join the Black Sea Grain Initiative next week,” he wrote.

The first ships with Ukrainian corn arrive in Istanbul

At noon on 6 August, the first of three dry cargo ships that had left Ukrainian ports the day before arrived in Istanbul. The Panama-flagged Navi Star has docked off the coast of the city and has already passed inspection, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. The dry cargo ship is heading to Ireland and carrying 33,000 tonnes of maize.

Two more ships are expected to arrive in Istanbul: Rojen under the Maltese flag and Polarnet under the Turkish flag. Polarnet left Chernomorsk on August 5th and is transporting 12,000 tonnes of maize to the Turkish port of Karasu, Rojen is loaded with 13,000 tonnes of maize and is on its way to Britain’s Teesport. The deployment of the three ships was approved by the Joint Coordination Centre, which includes representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN. The center was created as part of an agreement to Ukrainian grain exports. According to the agreements, the grain will be delivered from Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.

The first ship with agricultural products left Odessa on 1 August. The Sierra Leone-flagged freighter Razoni, loaded with corn, is heading to Lebanon and arrived in Istanbul on August 2, where it passed inspection. The arrival at the Lebanese port of Tripoli was scheduled for August 7, but was delayed, the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut told AFP without giving a reason. According to TASS, citing an unnamed port authority source, the ship is expected to arrive in Tripoli on August 9.