War in Ukraine Seven freighters leave Black Sea ports

War in Ukraine: Seven freighters leave Black Sea ports

Seven freighters carrying agricultural products left Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Thursday. According to Kyiv’s Ministry of Infrastructure, they carried a total of 290,000 tons of food.

Their destinations are countries in Europe and Asia. On Wednesday, Russia announced that it would rejoin the grain export agreement with Ukraine. Russia suspended its participation following drone strikes on its Black Sea fleet on Saturday.


However, Russia is unwilling to commit to extending the grain export deal with Ukraine, which initially only runs until November 19. It is first necessary to verify that the agreement works, says the spokesman of the Presidential Office, Dmitry Peskov.


Agreement for Turkish support


The agreement came about in the summer through the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey. It allows Ukraine to export its grain despite the war through a protection corridor in the Black Sea. However, after the drone attacks on Saturday, Russia declared that it could no longer provide security guarantees for civilian transport.


On Wednesday, there was another shift following talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In addition, there were written assurances from Ukraine that the humanitarian corridor that had been created and the ports would be used only for the export of food. That is enough at the moment to fulfill the agreement, he said in Moscow.


Ukraine: Moscow allegations dismissed


However, Ukraine on Thursday denied having made any new commitments. At the same time, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson rejected Moscow’s claims that Ukraine had used the security corridor for grain carriers to carry out drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet.