MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. More than 50 foreign ships from 14 countries remain blocked in six Ukrainian ports, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Wednesday.

"Fifty-three foreign ships from 14 countries are still blocked in six ports (Kherson, Nikolayev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa, and Yuzhny)," he said.

According to Mizintsev, who also heads the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine, 21 ships have left Ukrainian ports since August 1 as part of the initiative on mutual understanding on safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports. "As many as 563,318 tonnes of food have been exported, including 451,481 tonnes of corn, 6,000 tonnes of sunflower oil, 50,301 tonnes of flour, 11,000 tonnes of soybeans, 41,622 tonnes of wheat and 2,914 tonnes of sunflower seeds," he said.

Risks for navigation and of damages to port infrastructure from drifting Ukrainian mines are still in place for the Black Sea littoral states, he stressed.

The Russian armed forces have created necessary conditions for the operation of two maritime humanitarian corridors.