The last ship under the current Black Sea grain deal left Ukraine on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Joint Coordination Centre told CNN, as last-ditch talks to extend the pact continue.
The vessel was the DSM Capella, according to Ismini Palla, a spokesperson for the JCC, which facilitates the deal’s implementation. Data from the UN show it left the port of Chornomorsk on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast — carrying 30,000 metric tons of corn — and was on its way to Turkey.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative is an arrangement that allows Ukraine to export grain by sea. The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, was signed by Russia and Ukraine last July and has been extended multiple times.
The agreement is set to expire on Thursday if not renewed again.
UN secretary-general spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Tuesday that there were negotiations ongoing to renew it.
"Contacts are going on at different levels. We’re obviously in a delicate stage," he said.
In his regular press briefing on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked what would happen if the deal was not extended.
"I do not think that any hypothetical reasoning is appropriate here," Peskov said. "You know that so far the decision has not been announced."
The Black Sea Grain Initiative has allowed the export of more than 30 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs from Ukraine – one of the world’s top grain exporters – since it first began in July last year.
As negotiations have continued in the past few months about extending the deal, exports have dipped by nearly 30%, the UN said last week.
The International Rescue Committee has said the expiration of the deal would be "likely to trigger increased levels of hunger and malnutrition, spelling further disaster for East Africa." It said that shipments of Ukrainian and Russian grain represent "as much as 90% of imports for countries in East Africa going through a food security crisis."
