ANKARA, August 17. /TASS/. Turkey is ready to guarantee unimpeded transit through the Turkish Straits, the Bosporus and Dardanelles, for vessels carrying loads of grain from Ukrainian ports, Haber Global TV channel reported, citing sources in the Turkish Defense Ministry.

"As far as we know, no vessel has yet departed from Ukraine. However, if one arrives it will be granted passage through the straits," the source was quoted as saying on the TV channel’s page on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

Meanwhile, the Elips Haber news portal said, citing sources in the Turkish Defense Ministry, that, "the first ship had already departed via the new corridor."

On August 16, the Hong Kong-flagged container carrier Joseph Schulte departed from the port of Odessa where it had been anchored since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, and left Ukraine’s territorial waters. According to data provided by the Marine Traffic ship tracking service, the vessel is heading to the Turkish port of Ambarli.

The vessel was the first to use the Kiev-announced "temporary corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Kubrakov said.

Ukrainian Black Sea corridors

On August 10, the Ukrainian armed forces announced the opening of "temporary corridors" in the Black Sea for commercial ships headed to or from the ports of Chernomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny. Kiev warned, though, that military and mine threats persisted on the route, which is why only vessels whose owners and captains "officially confirmed their readiness to sail under such conditions" were allowed to take the routes. It was stated that the routes would be used first of all to enable civilian vessels stuck at anchor at the three Ukrainian ports since the end of February 2022 to depart.

Black Sea navigation restrictions

On August 12, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said that Ankara was discussing the issue of returning Turkish vessels blocked in Ukraine with Moscow and Kiev, adding though that there were no guarantees. Twelve Turkish commercial vessels and one damaged shipboard crane were stuck in Ukrainian ports, he noted.

On July 17, Moscow declined to agree to another extension of the Black Sea grain deal, which had initially been concluded via the Istanbul agreements in July 2022 to guarantee the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea as well as the lifting of restrictions to allow exports of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers. Moscow said that it was withdrawing from the deal due to the failure of the other parties to fulfill their obligations under the Russia-related provisions of the Istanbul agreements that called for facilitating the export of Russian agricultural products to global markets.

Later, the Russian Defense Ministry said that, due to the termination of the grain deal, effective at midnight on July 20 Moscow would consider all vessels heading to Ukrainian ports via the Black Sea to be carriers of military cargos, while the flag countries of such vessels would be regarded as parties to the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kiev. Moreover, the ministry announced that a number of sea regions in the northwestern and southeastern parts of international waters of the Black Sea were deemed temporarily hazardous for navigation.