THE Hong Kong-flagged 9,400-TEU Joseph Schulte has left for Port of Odessa for Istanbul, the first vessel to leave Ukraine's ports since Russia threatened to attack shipping in the Black Sea last month, reported London's Financial Times.
The ship departed shortly after Russia attacked one of Ukraine's two Danube river ports for the third time since July, destroying and damaging granaries and warehouses, Odessa's governor Oleg Kiper wrote on Telegram.
The owners of the ship, which is carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of cargo including foodstuffs, said the ship had succeeded in clearing Ukrainian waters.
Following its withdrawal from the grain agreement, Russia said all vessels travelling to and from Ukraine's ports would be regarded as military targets. Since the deal broke down, Ukraine has been using its two Danube river ports, Reni and Izmail, to transit grain via a canal to the Romanian port of Constanta, from where the exports can be shipped by sea.
Despite Russian threats, the Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte was making its way through an established civilian vessel corridor, according to Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine's infrastructure minister.
The Joseph Schulte is co-owned by Bernhard Schulte, a German company, and an unnamed Chinese bank. The company said the vessel was using the route submitted by Ukraine on August 10 and accepted by the International Maritime Organisation, travelling via Ukraine and Romania's territorial waters to Istanbul.
The ship, which docked at Odessa on February 23, 2022 - a day before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has a Ukrainian crew.
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