Sierra Leone Flagged Ship Sails Out Of Ukraine With Grain

As part of a global agreement aimed at easing the hunger crisis, the first ship carrying grain from Ukraine sailed out of Odesa on Monday morning.

The cargo ship, Razoni, which flies the flag of Sierra Leone, departed from the port of Odesa in Ukraine and is sailing to Lebanon, a small country in the Middle East that imports almost all of its grain and lacks storage space after a 2020 explosion destroyed grain silos at its main port in Beirut.

According to a statement from the Turkish Ministry of National Defense, the ship is anticipated to arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday where it will be examined before being given permission to continue to Tripoli.

A statement from a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Razoni, which is carrying 26,527 tons of corn, is the first commercial ship to depart from Odesa since February 26 and the first vessel to do so under the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements with Turkey and the U.N. last month to allow Russia to export grain and fertilizer and for Ukraine to resume shipping grain from the Black Sea to international markets.

Grain, fertilizer, and fuel prices have skyrocketed globally since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24.

A third of the world’s supply of wheat and barley is produced in Russia and Ukraine, which are frequently referred to as Europe’s breadbasket.

 However, a Russian blockade in the Black Sea and Ukrainian naval mines have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs nearly impossible.