The first shipment of Ukrainian grain to leave Odessa since Russia’s invasion is expected in Istanbul “after midnight”, Ankara said Tuesday, under a landmark deal to lift Moscow’s naval blockade in the Black Sea.
As the cargo vessel carrying the long-awaited consignment hugged the Bulgarian coastline, Kyiv announced it had begun mandatory evacuations from the war-torn Donetsk region at the heart of the Kremlin’s gruelling assault.
The Sierra Leone-registered ship, Razoni, set sail from Odessa for Lebanon Monday under an accord brokered by Turkey and the United Nations aimed at getting millions of tonnes of trapped produce to world markets and curb a global food crisis.
The ship had cautiously made its way through a specially cleared corridor in the mine-infested waters of the Black Sea.
It will be inspected by a special coordination centre involving representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN at sea in the mouth of the Bosphorus before being allowed to progress.
Kyiv says at least 16 more grain ships are waiting to depart.
The breakthrough pact signed in July was the first significant accord involving Ukraine and Russia since Moscow invaded its neighbour on February 24.
Yet Russia has continued to pound cities and towns across Ukraine’s sprawling front line.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said a train carrying “women, children, elderly people, many people with reduced mobility” arrived in the central city of Kropyvnytskyi on Tuesday morning.
Officials have said they want to get residents out of the battered region before the start of winter as gas pipes for heating have been severed.
Oleksander Vilkul said two other passengers were in serious condition in hospital with burns.
– More Western arms –
Ukraine was bolstered by more supplies of Western arms — particularly long-range artillery — as it looks launch a major push in the south to retake Kherson.
“Our artillerymen are ready to turn night into day to expel the Russian invaders,” Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
Fighters from Azov were among 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in May after weeks of fierce resistance at the Azovstal steel plant in devastated Mariupol.
It members were among 50 Ukrainian servicemen killed last week in an attack on a jail holding prisoners of war in Russian-occupied territory.
Azov, in response to the Russian court ruling, called on the US and other countries to recognise Russia as a “terrorist state”.
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