4 more grain ships leave Ukraine: Türkiye

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Four more ships have left Ukrainian ports under the Istanbul grain export deal, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Friday.

A ministry statement said shipments from Ukrainian ports are continuing as planned.

"Five ships inspected (in Istanbul) also left for Ukraine," it added.

Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul on July 22 to resume grain exports from the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Yuzhny, Chornomorsk and Odesa, which were halted due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its seventh month.

A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN has been set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

On Thursday, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that since the first ship left Ukraine under the deal on Aug. 1, a total of 39 ships with more than 850,000 tons of agricultural products have left ports.