UK says sailing of 1st grain shipment from Ukraine an 'important first step'

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said that the sailing Monday of the first grain ship since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an “important first step.”

Under the U.N.-brokered agreement, the ship, Razoni, left Ukraine’s Odessa this morning for Lebanon, traveling along a safe corridor established under the deal.

“This is an important first step. The UK and our allies have pushed hard for this outcome. We are grateful to the U.N. and Turkey for helping to secure this agreement,” Truss said.

“Russia has felt the full weight of global pressure and the eyes of the whole world will now be watching to see if they continue to weaponize global food supplies as they have been until now,” Truss added.

“These ships must receive safe passage. There must be no repeat of Russia’s shelling of the port of Odessa,” she went on to say.

She added that the only way Russian President Vladimir Putin “can truly alleviate the global food security crisis he has created is by ending his brutal invasion of Ukraine.”

The main parameters of the Istanbul grain initiative include:

- safe access through a maritime corridor to Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi ports

- a U.N.-led command and control center in Istanbul to monitor vessels and assess threat levels

- checks on inbound and outbound vessels to ensure that only grains are being moved

- a commitment from all parties not to attack merchant or other civilian vessels, or port facilities, covered by the plan