First Shipment of Ukrainian corn leaves for Tripoli in Lebanon.

It is a back page story in the Wall St Journal.  20,000 tons of corn.  That ought to fill up a big ship, and when made into Corn Flakes is will take up a lot more space.  Ukraine has a lot more grain it can ship, a million tons or more from last year and as much again or more from this year’s harvest which ought to be starting soon.  The Ukrainians say it will take a month or more to ship that much grain.  They worry about running out of room to store the new harvest if they cannot more last year’s harvest. 

   Unsaid in the Journal story is how much Ukraine gets paid for that first shipload, and follow on ship loads.  And in what currency, US dollars, Ukrainian currency, Russian rubles, Lebanese currency, IOUs, time payments, or who knows.  Surely Ukraine needs all the money it can get to keep fighting the Russians.  

Apparently a deal was struck between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN to  allow cargo ships thru the war torn Black Sea.  Gotta wonder why Russia signed on, you would think they would be happy to strangle Ukraine  by blockading their Black Sea ports.