The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine since the start of the Russian war of aggression has arrived in Turkey for inspection.
The freighter “Razoni” arrived with around 26,000 tons of corn from Ukraine at the Black Sea entrance to the Bosphorus Strait running through Istanbul and anchored at the assigned point, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced on Tuesday on Twitter.
On Wednesday, the cargo ship is to be inspected by representatives of the UN, Russia and Ukraine, among others, said Turkish admiral Özcan Altunbulak, head of the coordination center for grain exports from Ukraine, on Tuesday in Istanbul.
According to the information, the ship started shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday from the Ukrainian port of Odessa. The destination is the Lebanese port of Tripoli.
The “Razoni” was originally scheduled to arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon. The Turkish admiral explained the delay with the sea state. The ship is not to enter the port in Turkey, but will anchor off Istanbul, where it will then be inspected on the open sea.
The “Razoni” was off the Bulgarian coast on Tuesday morning, according to data from the “Marine Traffic” website. During the night, the ship had switched off its automatic identification system, which allows it to track its route, for more than eight hours before reconnecting to the system in the morning. The Turkish Defense Ministry gave no justification for this maneuver, which caused the ship to disappear from radar screens.
On July 22, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a grain export agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. In it, Ukraine and Russia undertake to respect safe corridors for cargo ships on the Black Sea and to refrain from military activities there. A day later, however, the Russian military fired rockets at the port of Odessa.
