Today at 9:15 a.m. as part of the implementation of the Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs, the first ship with Ukrainian food left the port of Odesa.

The Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship RAZONI is loaded with 26,000 tons of Ukrainian corn and is heading to the port of Tripoli in Lebanon.

"Today, Ukraine and its partners are taking another step towards preventing world hunger. 

    

Unblocking the ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for the next year.

We are grateful to our partners who, despite the difficulties, did not stop the work on preparation for export. For its part, Ukraine did everything to restore the operation of ports and all involved enterprises.

In the ports of Odesa, almost 16 ships are waiting for their turn. These are the vessels that have been blocked since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia. At the same time, we will receive applications for the arrival of new vessels for loading agricultural products.

In the coming weeks, with the support of our partners, we plan to reach the full capacity of transshipment of agricultural products," – Oleksandr Kubrakov, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine said.

This first success was the result of a 3-month process of negotiations on security issues overseen by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It should be mentioned that Ukraine, Türkiye and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres signed the Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports "Odesa", "Chornomorsk" and "Pivdennyi" on July 22 in Istanbul.