Ukraine sending among first grain shipments to Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland: Ireland is set to receive one of three ships that have sailed from Ukraine filled with grain.

The Turkish Defense Ministry reported that the ships set sail, in keeping with a UN-backed deal lifting Russia's blockade of the Black Sea.

The Ireland-bound ship, carrying 33,000 tons of grain, is the Panama-flagged Navistar, traveling from Odessa.

Irish grain company R&H Hall had ordered the grain from the Navistar. The shipment is to be offloaded in Foynes and Dublin Ports.

"The recommencement of sailings from the Black Sea of vessels such as the NaviStar is the first step in returning some degree of certainty to the global food supply chain, in what remains a volatile situation," the company said in a statement.

"We look forward to the NaviStar arriving at port in approximately two weeks."

The other two ships leaving Ukraine are headed to Britain and Turkey.

Further, an empty Barbados-flagged ship, the Fulmar, is scheduled to arrive at the port of Chornomorsk to be loaded with grain.

Following UN sponsored negotiations, Moscow and Kyiv agreed in July to allow shipments of wheat and other grain from Ukrainian ports for the first time since Russia's February invasion of Ukraine.

The first ship, carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn, left Odessa headed for the Lebanese port of Tripoli.

The ongoing war has prevented Ukraine from shipping grain worldwide, sending global food prices soaring, as imports have become too expensive for some of the world's poorest nations.

In spite of the shipments from Ukraine, there remain 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain unable to be shipped.