A Turkish merchant ship set sail from the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on Wednesday, following talks between the Russian and Turkish delegations in Moscow on the grain blockade in Ukraine, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced.
Just a few hours after the end of the long meeting, the Turkish freighter [“Azov Concord”), que estava à espera há dias, deixou o porto ucraniano”, disse o ministério numa declaração, citada pela agência francesa AFP.
Trata-se do “primeiro navio estrangeiro a deixar o porto ucraniano de Mariupol”, que está sob controlo russo desde maio, no âmbito da invasão da Ucrânia em 24 de fevereiro, acrescentou o ministério.
Uma reunião quadripartida com representantes das Nações Unidas, Rússia e Ucrânia terá lugar nas “próximas semanas” na Turquia para organizar o transporte de cereais através do Mar Negro, disse Ancara.
In a statement issued in Moscow, the Russian government said that delegations from the Russian and Turkish defense ministries had negotiated the release of Ukrainian ports for the export of grain and ways to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea.
“The parties discussed the safe departure of Turkish merchant ships and the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.as well as approaches to guarantee safe navigation in the Black Sea”, according to the statement cited by the Spanish agency EFE.
According to the Russian news agency TASS, five ships from Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Liberia, Panama and Jamaica remain in the port of Mariupol.
Russia has said it is ready to ensure the safe exit of Ukraine’s grain ships through the Black Sea once ports are cleared and corridors are created to allow transit.
Moscow argues that it was Ukraine that undermined the ports, not Russiawhich controls most of the terminals in the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine, except for the largest in Odessa on the Black Sea.
Off the coast of Odessa, Russia maintains warships that block the passage of merchant ships.
Ukraine demands viable guarantees that Russia will not take advantage of any demining to attack Odessa.
Turkey, which is mediating between Russia and Ukraine to allow the export of Ukrainian cereals, believes that it is not necessary to do demining, only to identify the mines and use Ukrainian tugboats to make the routes safely.
The West accuses Russia of creating a global food shortage to ease sanctions that have been placed on it since it invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Together, according to the British magazine The Economist, Ukraine and Russia supply 28% of the wheat, 29% of the barley, 15% of the corn and 75% of the world’s sunflower oil.
Source: Observadora
