Cargo ship leaves Ukraine port despite Russia’s threat

Kyiv announced Wednesday a cargo vessel had exited its southern port of Odesa along a new maritime corridor, despite an earlier warning from Russia it could target vessels using Ukrainian ports. The announcement, which raises the spectre of an intervention by Russian warships, came hours after Ukraine said it had liberated a village as part of a grinding push to wrest Moscow’s forces along the southern front. Russia issued its maritime threat after scuppering a key deal last month — brokered by the UN and Turkey — that guaranteed safe passage for grain exports from three Ukrainian ports. “The first vessel is moving along the temporary corridors established for civilian vessels to and from Black Sea ports,” Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a statement. He named the vessel as the Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, and said it had left the port of Odesa — one of three transit hubs that participated in the now-scrapped grain deal. Since Russia’s exit, it has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea port infrastructure and facilities Kyiv uses to export grain through the Danube river.