Vessel carrying Ukrainian grain unable to depart Chornomorsk port due to poor weather - Turkish Defense Ministry

ISTANBUL. Aug 11 (Interfax) - A bulk carrier loaded with grain was unable to depart from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on Thursday due to poor weather, the Anadolu news agency reported with reference to the Turkish Defense Ministry.

This is the 13th vessel expected to leave Ukraine under a Turkish- and UN-brokered deal to facilitate agricultural exports from that country.

The United Nations said on Wednesday that the Joint Coordination Center comprising representatives from the organization, as well as from Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine, authorized 12 vessels to depart Ukrainian ports with "over 370,000 metric tonnes of grain and other food stocks" on board. The center also "authorized the movement of four vessels into Ukrainian park ports so far for loading."

Participants in four-sided negotiations (the United Nations, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine) signed two documents in Istanbul on July 22 regulating the functioning of a sea corridor for exporting grain from the Ukrainian seaports of Odesa, Chornomorsk (Illichivsk), and Pivdennyi (Yuzhnyi).