Three ships, including one chartered by the United Nations World Food Program, departed from Ukrainian ports on Sunday, the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) said.
A ship with Ukrainian wheat destined for Ethiopia arrived in port on Saturday, the first vessel to sail as part of a push to send food to countries most vulnerable to famine and drought, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Last Saturday, Ukraine and allied nations launched an initiative to export $150 million worth of grain to Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Kenya, and Yemen.
“We ship food. We ship hope,” Zelenskiy said in a tweet accompanying a short clip of a vessel carrying 25,000 tonnes of wheat for Ethiopia that he said had arrived in the port of Doraleh, in neighboring Djibouti.
Zelenskiy said on Friday that by early next year, a total of around 60 ships would have delivered cargoes.
“As of 4 December, the total tonnage of grain and other foodstuffs exported from the three Ukrainian ports is 13,023,448 metric tons. A total of 1,046 voyages (522 inbound and 524 outbound) have been enabled so far,” the JCC said.
