Cargo ship Razoni (IMO 9086526), which left Odesa on Monday August 1st carrying the first seabound Ukrainian grain to world markets since late February, initially was claimed by
Istanbul to be on track to arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday night, August 2nd. However, the Turkish Ministry of Defence later announced that the arrival would not be expected until the night of August 4th. Minister Hulusi Akar had changed the ETA several times, from an initial estimate of August 2nd, to the late evening of August 2nd, to the morning of August 3rd, and then August 4th. (However, it’s possible that the August 4th date applies to Tripoli, rather than Istanbul).
The ministry did not provide any information about the reason for the delay.
Ozcan Altunbudak, Turkey’s representative at a coordination centre created to oversee the restart of Ukrainian grain exports, who had also said that the vessel was on track to anchor at Istanbul on Tuesday night, said that the only issue so far had been slight delay caused by bad weather, he said. On Tuesday morning he claimed that the ship, which is carrying 26,527 tonnes of corn, was due to arrive in Istanbul at around midnight local time
A Turkish official said that the country expected roughly one grain ship to leave Ukrainian ports each day for as long as the safe passage agreement holds.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy in his nightly address late on Monday August 1st called the ship’s departure “the first positive signal,” but warned it was too early to draw conclusions or predict how things would play out. “We cannot have illusions that Russia
will simply refrain from trying to disrupt Ukrainian exports,” he said. Russia too has called the Razoni’s departure “very positive” news.
When it does arrive the Razoni will then be inspected by Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and UN officials under the terms of the safe passage agreement. It will then continue its journey to the Lebanese port of Tripoli, its planned final destination.
As of the afternoon of August 2nd MarineTraffic had the vessel in the Black Sea, close to the Bosphorus.
1996-built, Sierra Leone-flagged, 18,495 gt Razoni is owned and managed by Razoni Shipping Ltd of Monrovia, Liberia. It is entered with MS Amlin on behalf of Razoni Shipping Ltd.
