Present at the port of Pivdenny, in the city of Youjné, to witness the loading of the MV Brave Commander, Minister Oleksandre Kubrakov indicated that "the ship will be heading for Africa, Ethiopia being the last country where the cargo of 23,000 tons of wheat will be delivered".
“I hope more World Food Program (WFP) chartered ships will come to our ports. I hope there will be 2-3 more ships soon,” he continued.
On Twitter, he later added that the load was complete and the boat was ready to go, without giving a date.
The MV Brave Commander docked Friday at the port of Pivdenny, near Odessa.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure, it will leave for Djibouti, from where the grain will be transferred to Ethiopia.
This is the first shipment of food aid to leave Ukraine since agreements were signed in July by kyiv and Moscow, via Turkish mediation and under the aegis of the UN, on the export of Ukrainian cereals, blocked because of the war between the two countries.
"Obviously we expect more ships to leave Ukrainian ports to help people around the world. This is just the first of many humanitarian ships that will leave ports," Marianne Ward, deputy director of World Food Program (WFP) operations in Ukraine.
The first commercial ship left on August 1, and a total of 16 boats have left Ukraine since the agreement came into force, according to the Ukrainian authorities' tally, but no UN humanitarian cargo has yet took to the sea.
Ukraine and Russia are among the world's largest exporters of cereals, which have experienced a surge in prices since the start of the war.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), a record 345 million people in 82 countries are now facing acute food insecurity, while up to 50 million people in 45 countries are at risk of starvation without humanitarian aid.
© 2022 AFP