A second container ship sailed Saturday through a temporary Black Sea corridor established by Ukraine's government after Russia halted a wartime agreement aimed at ensuring safe grain exports from the invaded country's ports.
The Primus, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, left the port of Odesa on Saturday morning and was steaming south toward the Bulgarian port of Varna, according to data from marine traffic monitoring sites.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko also posted a photo of the vessel leaving port on his Telegram channel.
The ship is moving to the port of Varna in Bulgaria, news agency Interfax Ukraine reported citing the MarineTraffic database.
The Primus' departure came 10 days after the launch of another container ship that had been docked in Odesa since before Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte.
Analysts had surmised that China's political closeness to Russia might have eased that ship's passage and raised doubts about whether vessels registered elsewhere would follow.
The interim corridor, which Kyiv has asked the International Maritime Organization to ratify, was opened on Aug. 10 as U.S. and Ukrainian officials warned of possible Russian attacks on civilian vessels in the Black Sea.
Sea mines also make the voyage risky, and ship insurance costs are likely to be high for operators.
Russia withdrew from the Türkiye-U.N. brokered grain deal on July 17, with Kremlin officials arguing their demands for the facilitation of Russian food and fertilizer shipments had not been met.
The decision came hours after a predawn attack on a bridge connecting the Crimean Peninsula to Russia killed two people and dealt an embarrassing blow to the Kremlin.
Although Russian officials insisted there was no link between the span and the decision to exit the deal, they described a missile and drone attack on Odesa the day after Moscow broke off the safe shipping agreement as retribution for the damaged bridge.
Before Moscow's withdrawal, Odesa's three seaports shipped tens of millions of tons of grain under the Black Sea initiative.
Russian forces have since targeted Ukrainian ports with volleys of missiles and kamikaze drones.
EU asks Russia to renew grain deal
Meanwhile, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis urged Russia on Saturday to renew the Black Sea grain deal.
Dombrovskis said Russian restrictions on shipping of Ukrainian grains via the Black Sea were creating problems not only for Kyiv but for many developing countries as well.
Russia is using "grain as a weapon," said Dombrovskis, who is in India to participate in a G-20 trade ministers' meeting.
"We support all efforts by United Nations, by Türkiye on Black Sea grain initiative," he told reporters, adding the bloc was providing alternative trading routes, also called solidarity lanes, to Ukraine for grain and other exports.
Türkiye has been trying to persuade Moscow to return to the agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday that Russia will return to the deal only if the West fulfills its obligations to Moscow.
So far, some 45 million tons of grain, oil seeds and related products have been exported through alternative routes via Poland and Romania, providing an important lifeline to Ukraine, Dombrovskis said.
According to the European Commission's website, the bloc has used alternative routes since May 2022.
The commission launched the Solidarity Lanes Action Plan to establish alternative logistics routes via rail, road and inland waterways.
These routes have also helped Ukraine export over 36 million tons of non-agricultural products, including iron ore, steel, earth and wood, generating about 33 billion euros ($35.64 billion) for Ukrainian farmers and businesses, the EU said on its website.
The European Union is supporting Ukraine through defense, financial and other aid, aiming to throw "Russian troops beyond international borders of Ukraine," Dombrovskis said.
The bloc is concerned that some countries including China and India have not joined Western sanctions against Russia.
In bilateral talks between India and EU officials, EU officials raised the issue of exports of refined oil processed by India from Russian crude oil, which partly defeated the purpose of sanctions, he added.
However, he said this was unlikely to affect ongoing talks about a proposed EU-India free trade agreement.