A container ship, named Joseph Schulte, which set sail from Ukraine's Odesa port earlier this week, has reached the Istanbul Strait, the state-run Turkish news agency Anadolu reported on Friday.
It is the first vessel that has departed from Odesa port after Russia?’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative last month.
The Hong Kong-flagged vessel entered the Istanbul Strait through the Black Sea at 06.10 a.m. local time (0310GMT). The container-laden vessel will anchor at Istanbul's Ambarli port.
On Thursday, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the first vessel left Odesa port on Wednesday after the suspension of the Black Sea grain initiative in mid-July.
"Container ship Joseph Schulte (Hong Kong flag) is proceeding through corridor established for civilian vessels to/from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine. This transport corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships that were in ports at the time of the full-scale invasion of the Russia," Kubrakov said.
On July 17, Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, which it signed last July along with T?¼rkiye, the UN, and Ukraine to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February. But even when renewing the deal in previous months, Moscow has complained that the Russian part of the agreement was not being implemented
Source: Kuwait News Agency