The first ship to use a temporary corridor to and from Ukraine’s seaports entered Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait early Friday, local media reported.
The Hong Kong-flagged container ship operated by a German firm entered the Bosphorus at 6:10 a.m. (0310 GMT), the report said.
The vessel left the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea on Wednesday evening, several hours after leaving the southern port of Odessa.
The ship had been stuck there for more than one and a half years throughout the entire course of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine said merchant ships can use the corridor at their own risk.
Kiev set up the corridor after Russia in July terminated a UN-brokered deal to move vital grain exports out of blockaded Ukrainian ports.
There have been safety concerns as Russia sees all ships on their way to Ukrainian ports as potential carriers of supplies for the Ukrainian army.
On Sunday, the Russian military stopped and inspected a ship owned by a Turkish company on its way to the Danube port of Izmail.
After days-long silence, Turkey late on Thursday said it warned Moscow over the incident.
The Russian parties were “appropriately warned” to avoid such attempts that would “escalate tensions in the Black Sea,” the Turkish presidency said.
Turkey, along with the UN, had brokered the now frozen grain deal between Ukraine and Russia and sees itself as a mediator in the war.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier said he expects to convince his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to renew the grain deal.
Moscow has not so far confirmed any such plans. (dpa/NAN)
