KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Four more ships loaded with grain set off from Ukrainian ports on Sunday.
Odessa regional authorities, meanwhile, announced that another two grain shipments were due to leave on Monday.
Kyiv’s infrastructure ministry wrote on Telegram on Sunday that a convoy of Ukrainian supplies had left, with three ships departing from Chornomorsk and one from Odessa.
The Mustafa Necati, the Star Helena, the Glory and the Riva Wind were carrying “around 170,000 tons of agriculture-related merchandise,” it said.
The spokesperson for the Odessa regional military administration said early Monday morning that the MV Sacura and MV Arizona had also been cleared to set sail.
It would “transport more than 59,000 tons of food via the maritime humanitarian corridor today,” he said.
In Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis welcomed the resumption of grain exports as “a sign of hope” that showed dialogue was possible to end the war.
The renewed shipments of Ukrainian grain to help ease global food shortages and bring down prices offered a small glimmer of hope as the war entered its sixth month.
Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, had been forced to halt almost all deliveries in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
That sent global food prices soaring, making imports prohibitively expensive for some of the world’s poorest nations.