INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The first shipment of Ukrainian grain since the Russian invasion in February left the port of Odesa on Monday morning under a landmark deal
the announcement while Kyiv said it would bring "relief for the world" if Moscow held up its side of the accord.The five-month halt of
poorest nations especially hard.Officials said the Razoni cargo ship, registered in Sierra Leone, was making its way through a specially
cleared corridor in the mine-infested waters of the Black Sea with 26,000 tons of maize on board
It will then continue its journey after it has been inspected in Istanbul," the Turkish foreign minister said in a statement.Other convoys
getting millions of tonnes of trapped Ukrainian grain to world markets.But Russian strikes on the Odesa port the day after the deal was
signed sparked outrage from Ukraine's allies and cast doubt over the accord.Guterres, according to a UN statement, "hopes that this will be
the first of many commercial ships moving in accordance with the initiative signed, and that this will bring much-needed stability and
relief to global food security, especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.""Ensuring that existing grain and foodstuffs can move
to global markets is a humanitarian imperative," he added.Guterres also said that the World Food Programme was planning to "purchase, load
and ship an initial 30,000 metric tons of wheat out of Ukraine on a UN-chartered vessel," and there would be further details in the coming
days.Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Monday marked a "day of relief for the world, especially for our friends in the Middle
East, Asia, and Africa, as the first Ukrainian grain leaves Odesa after months of Russian blockade."The Kremlin on Monday hailed it as a
"very positive" development and a "good opportunity to test the effectiveness of the mechanisms that were agreed during talks in
Istanbul."The long-awaited consignment however is just the beginning of a backlog and Ukraine Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov
reach full efficiency at of shipments of agricultural products during the following weeks," he added.The departure of the Razoni comes one
day after Ukrainian agricultural magnate Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa were killed when a missile struck their house in the
battle-scarred city of Mykolaiv in the south.Vadatursky owned major grain exporter Nibulon and was previously decorated with the prestigious
that three people had been injured in "massive" Russian shelling overnight that damaged homes and damaged humanitarian supplies.Despite
progress on the grain exports, there was also Russian shelling in the war-scarred east of the country, where Russian troops have been
fighting deeper into the Donbas region.The head of the industrial Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian shelling over the past 24
