Ukraine grain ship leaves Black Sea port despite Russian threat

KYIV  -Ukraine said on Tuesday a cargo ship carrying grain had left a southern Black Sea port despite a Russian threat to treat civilian vessels there as potential military targets.

Moscow levied the warning after this summer leaving an agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow maritime exports from Ukraine. But Kyiv created a naval corridor that several cargo ships have used.

“The vessel Resilient Africa with 3,000 tons of wheat has left the port of Chornomorsk and is heading towards the Bosphorus,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kurakov said on social media.

He specified that the ship had also entered the Ukrainian port several weeks earlier via the newly-established corridor, alongside one other vessel that Kurakov said would soon depart for Egypt.

In July, Russia scuppered the key deal that guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments from three Ukrainian ports, and stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s port infrastructure.