Turkey believes the center will make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said at the opening ceremony on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s three ports dedicated to grain exports have resumed operations.
control on weapons
Preparations are underway for the first ship loaded with grain to leave Ukraine via the Black Sea. Ships are to be checked when passing through the Bosphorus Strait, i.e. when entering and exiting the Black Sea, to ensure that they have no weapons or the like loaded. The coordination center will register the merchant ships and track their movements via satellite, among other things, Akar said.
The center is part of an agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey on Friday in Istanbul to lift the blockade of Ukrainian ports. In the agreement, Russia had pledged, for example, to let ships sail along a sea corridor and not to attack them or the ports involved. The Bosphorus Strait, which runs through Istanbul, is the only sea route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey has sovereignty over the Bosphorus.
According to Akar, the center has been in operation since Saturday. Akar took the fact that Ukraine, Russia and the UN sent representatives just one day after it was signed as a sign of their determination to implement the agreement. Civilians and military personnel worked in the center – five representatives from each party, Akar said.
Three ports back in service
The three ports of Ukraine intended for the export of grain have resumed their work. The ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdenny (Yuzhne) are operational again, although there is still work to be done to ensure the safety of the convoys, the Ukrainian Navy said on Wednesday.
According to a Turkish government representative, the first ship loaded with Ukrainian grain is expected to set sail this week. A safe corridor through the Black Sea, which is not mined, is planned for the first sea export of grain since the beginning of the Russian invasion, according to Reuters.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has already warned that the recently agreed agreement could fail. The export of grain from Russia and Ukraine must start simultaneously, demanded Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, according to the Interfax agency. Therefore, the obstacles to the export of Russian grain must be removed quickly. “We always hope for the best and count on our partners to implement the two components of the grain deal, which concerns grain exports from Ukraine and the lifting of restrictions on Russian grain exports altogether,” Rudenko said. In the past, Russia has explicitly made an end to the blockade of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports dependent on the easing of Western sanctions against itself.
The agreement is initially valid for four months. If about eight million tons of grain can be exported per month, four months would be enough to export the currently blocked grain of the order of 25 million tons. Before the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine was one of the most important grain exporters in the world. However, because of the war, millions of tons of grain cannot be exported from Ukraine. The food is urgently needed on the world market – especially in Asia and Africa. The United Nations recently warned of the worst famine in decades.
Source: Nachrichten
