First grain shipment to leave Ukraine under deal with Russia delayed in the Med

A boat with Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. officials heads to the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, to check if the grain shipment is in accordance with a crucial agreement signed last month by Moscow and Kyiv, at an inspection area in the Black Sea off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. The cargo ship Razoni, loaded up with 26,000 tons of corn, set sail from Ukraine’s Odesa on Monday, enroute to final destination, Lebanon.(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

The scheduled arrival of the first grain ship to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea under a wartime deal has been delayed, a Lebanese cabinet minister and the Ukrainian embassy said.

The cause of the delay was not immediately clear and Marine Traffic, which monitors the locations of ships at sea, showed the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni at anchor in the Mediterranean Sea near Turkey.