The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain set out from the port of Odesa on Monday under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that is expected to release large stores of Ukrainian crops to foreign markets and ease a growing food crisis.

The Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni left Odesa carrying over 26,000 tons of corn destined for Lebanon.

“The first grain ship since Russian aggression has left port,” said Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov on Twitter, posting a video of the long vessel sounding its horn as its slowly headed out to sea.

The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine left a port in the southern city of Odesa Monday, after months of Russian blockade helped fuel a mounting global food crisis.

The first cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain left a Black Sea port in southern Ukraine on Monday under a deal enabling the safe passage of food-carrying vessels.

Shipping companies are not rushing to export millions of tons of trapped grain out of Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea. That is because explosive mines are drifting in the waters, ship owners are assessing the risks and many still have questions over how the deal will unfold.

The complexities of the agreement have set off a slow, cautious start, but it’s only good for 120 days — and the clock began ticking last week.

Russian and Ukrainian officials were poised Friday to sign deals designed to clear millions of tons of desperately needed grain for export, ending a standoff brought on by the war in Ukraine that threatened food security around the globe.

The two countries were expected to sign separate agreements with Turkey and the United Nations that would enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to the war.

A new United Nations report released Wednesday outlined the horrific statistics on worldwide hunger levels, showing that billions of people are facing food insecurities or are on the brink of starvation.   

The report, "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World," says world hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat. The number facing severe food insecurity increased to about 924 million.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for debt relief for the world's poorest countries on Friday as he warned that an "unprecedented global food crisis" that is already ravaging more vulnerable nations will also have severe impacts for the entire world.

The U.N. chief said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has significantly worsened disruptions to the food supply chain that had already been hard-hit by the droughts and extreme weather triggered by climate crisis as well as the coronavirus pandemic and persistent inequality.

The past two years as recorded by the news media have felt like something out of the book of Revelation. First came the pale rider in early 2020, mounted on jetliners and sleeper trains, as coronavirus became a pandemic. His fellow horsemen, red and white, arrived this February when Russian tanks scythed across the length and width of Ukraine.

Time dubbed Putin’s invasion “The Return of History.” And indeed for many in Europe, the moment was a sudden end to the Long Peace that had endured since 1945. The tribulations of yesteryear seemed to be returning.

The world has been focused for more than two years on the coronavirus epidemic, but one health expert says people should be aware that the threat of food shortages around the globe could be “just as deadly.”

Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, warned against governments only focusing on one virus.

Sands said food shortages could become the next global health crisis and world leaders should prepare for it.

By invading ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the lives of people far from the battlefield—and on a scale even he may regret. The war is battering a global food system weakened by covid-19, climate change and an energy shock. Ukraine’s exports of grain and oilseeds have mostly stopped and Russia’s are threatened. Together, the two countries supply 12% of traded calories. Wheat prices, up 53% since the start of the year, jumped a further 6% on May 16th, after India said it would suspend exports because of an alarming heatwave.