Ends inspection of the first Ukrainian wheat ship: Now Lebanon sets

This is being done under a UN-brokered agreement to resume grain exports from the war-torn country.

The transport ship, Racon, which is registered in Sierra Leone, has reached the Turkish coast in the morning of August 3rd. It is transporting “over 26,000 tons of metrics” corn.

The Turkish Defence Ministry said on August 3rd that the inspection was conducted by a team of 20 people.

Under the deal, grain inspection is done by a joint co-ordination special centre consisting of civil and military officials from Ukraine and Russia, as well as delegates from Turkey and the UN.

In line with the procedure the parties have agreed on, inspections will take place, not in Istanbul's own port, but in the sea, the Bosphorus Strait linking the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea and the Aegean Sea.

The media have been warned to stay away from the ship.

Turkish Admiral Ozcan Altunbulak, co-ordinator at the joint centre, said “preparations and planning” are continuing for other ships expected to leave the ports of Ukraine.

An unidentified senior Turkish official told Reuters earlier 2 August that Ankara expects approximately a grain ship to leave Ukrainian ports every day as long as the UN-brokered agreement exists.

Under the agreement brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, Ukrainian grain exports from three Black Sea ports will return to pre-war levels of about 5 million tonnes a month.

Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the country's invasion by Russia and its maritime blockade of Ukraine's ports have banned remittances. / REL/