The Razoni, a freighter flying the Sierra Leonean flag, left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea on Monday with 26,000 tonnes of corn, after the signing by Ukraine and Russia of two separate agreements, mediated by Turkey and under the aegis of the United Nations.
On Wednesday, Turkish and Russian experts inspected the ship off Istanbul, ahead of its scheduled arrival, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon, Sunday at 10:00 a.m. (07:00 GMT) at the port of Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.
“We would like to inform you that the expected arrival of the Razoni ship tomorrow has been postponed,” the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon said in a message received by AFP.
Asked about the reasons for this postponement, the embassy told AFP that it had “no other information” at the moment.
According to an official source familiar with the matter, the ship will probably not dock in Lebanon if it manages to sell its cargo to a merchant in another country.
“The ship will only go to Lebanon in one case: if a merchant buys its cargo,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The agreements signed by Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul on July 22 aim to make possible the export of Ukrainian cereals blocked by the war and those of Russian agricultural products despite Western sanctions, to alleviate the world food crisis and the rising prices in some of the poorest countries.
On Friday, three new shipments of corn left Ukraine in a convoy, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. The three buildings will serve Ireland, England and Turkey, according to the same source.