A ship carrying grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa for Lebanon under a safe passage agreement, the first departure since the Russian invasion blocked shipping through the Black Sea five months ago. The departure came after a Russian missile strike on the port city of Mykolaiv killed a Ukrainian grain tycoon and his wife, and as the war grinds on the east and south.
The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn, left the Black Sea Port at 9:48am local time, the ministry of infrastructure said, after weeks of negotiations brokered by Turkey and the UN.
It is the first such vessel to depart from Odesa since late February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking off a conflict that has left as many as 47mn people globally at risk of acute hunger, according to the World Food Programme. The Ukrainian government said another 16 ships were awaiting departure.
