A ship docked in a Ukrainian Black Sea port will depart the embattled country for Africa shortly after it finishes being loaded up with wheat for hungry people in Ethiopia, becoming the first United Nations-chartered vessel to transport desperately needed supplies.

The ship named MV Brave Commander docked in the port city of Yuzhny east of Odessa late Friday, after leaving Istanbul last Wednesday. It will sail to Ethiopia in the coming days via a grain corridor through the Black Sea brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye last month, a U.N. official said Sunday.

MV Brave Commander is expected to take on more than 23,000 metric tons of wheat, according to Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry – still only a tiny portion of the tens of millions of tons of grain currently languishing in Ukraine.

It will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo bound for Africa under the U.N.-led plan to unblock grain trapped by Russia’s war on Ukraine and bring relief to some of the millions worldwide who are on the brink of starvation.

Denise Brown, a U.N. resident coordinator in Ukraine, told reporters the grain was urgently needed in Ethiopia and that the United Nations would work to ensure continued shipments to countries around Africa that are facing famine and sharply higher food prices.

"On a very, very personal note, for any mothers who might be listening, seeing hunger in a child is very painful. Hunger, malnutrition is physically very, very painful," Brown, who was previously posted in the Central African Republic, told reporters. "It’s up to all of us to help these children."

The cargo was funded with donations from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and several private donors.

"The world needs the food of Ukraine. This is the beginning of what we hope is normal operations for the hungry people of the world," Marianne Ward, WFP deputy country director, told reporters. The relief agency purchased more than 800,000 tons of grain in Ukraine last year.

Ukrainian authorities have not released details on when the Brave Commander will sail or when it will arrive in Ethiopia, citing security concerns.

For months, fighting in Ukraine and a Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports meant that grain produced in Ukraine, one of the world’s key breadbaskets, piled up in silos.

That sent global food prices sky-high and led to hunger in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.

The grain agreement, brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye, was reached on July 22 amid fears that the loss of Ukrainian grain supplies would lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.

2 more ships set sail

Meanwhile, two more ships carrying grain left from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Saturday, Türkiye’s Defence Ministry said.

A total of 16 ships carrying 450,000 metric tons of agriculture products have departed from Ukrainian sea ports since early August, the country’s infrastructure ministry said on Saturday.

"We look at this ... in a very positive way. We’re optimistic," Brown told Reuters in a separate interview.

The Barbados-flagged Fulmar S left Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, carrying 12,000 tons of corn to Türkiye’s southern Iskenderun province, the ministry said. The Marshall Island-flagged Thoe departed from the same port and headed to Türkiye’s Tekirdağ, carrying 3,000 tons of sunflower seeds.

Brown said the authorities were looking at using rail to augment the shipments of grain, and the Ukrainian Agriculture Ministry also plans to open a new truck route to Poland.

Ukraine has some 20 million metric tons of grain left over from last year’s crop, while this year’s wheat harvest is also estimated at 20 million metric tons.

So far most of the cargoes under the deal have carried grain for animal feed or for fuel.

As part of the U.N. deal, all ships are inspected in Istanbul by the Joint Coordination Centre, where Russia, Ukrainian, Turkish and U.N. personnel work.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for the whole of July.

"This has already made it possible to reduce the severity of the food crisis," he said in a video address on Saturday.

Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tons of grain and other agriculture products per month in near future.

1st grain cargo nears Syria

Separately, the first ship to depart Ukraine under the grain deal two weeks ago was approaching the Syrian port of Tartous on Sunday, two shipping sources said.

The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni set sail from Odessa port on Aug. 1 but hit a snag when the buyer changed his mind, fearing the grain’s months aboard had decreased the quality.

The cargo of 26,000 tons of corn had originally been destined for Lebanon, which has been suffering a severe economic crisis that has made led to food insecurity for about half of its population.

However, the original buyer refused the delivery over quality concerns and the ship sailed to Türkiye, docking in Mersin on Aug. 11.

When it set sail again the following day, it did not keep its transponder on. Two shipping sources, one of them in Tartous, confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the ship was approaching the northwest Syrian port.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon had no immediate comment on the ship’s destination.

It has previously accused Syria of importing at least 150,000 tons of grain it said was plundered from Ukrainian warehouses after Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

Ukraine cut off diplomatic ties with Syria in June after Damascus recognized the independence of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.