Second grain ship leaves Ukrainian Black Sea port for Egypt

The second ship to load Ukrainian grain at the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk has departed, as Kyiv defies a de-facto maritime blockade following the collapse of a safe-passage agreement in July, Bloomberg reports.

The Aroyat is heading toward Egypt after loading almost 18,000 tons of wheat, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The vessel follows Resilient Africa, which has passed through the Bosphorus after loading wheat at Chornomorsk, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The ships arrived at the port over the weekend.

The ships are using a temporary corridor, Kubrakov said in his post, but the passage is fraught with risks. Russia has previously said it would treat any vessels headed to Ukraine’s ports as potential carriers of weapons, and last month opened fire on a ship to force it to stop for checks.