Yuzhny ( Ukraine ) (AFP) - Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov announced Sunday that the first ship chartered by the United Nations and loaded with 23,000 tons of grain is ready to leave the country.

"The ship will head towards Africa, and Ethiopia will be the last country to deliver the cargo," the minister said at the port of Pivdni in the city of Yuzhny, during the loading operations of the ship "MV Private Commander".

"I hope that other ships chartered within the framework of the World Food Program will arrive at our ports, and I hope that there will soon be two or three additional ships," he added.

Later, he added on his Twitter account that the shipment had ended and that the sentinel was ready to leave, without specifying a date for that.

The ship docked Friday in the port near Odessa. The Ministry of Infrastructure said it would go to Djibouti, and from there shipments would be transported to Ethiopia.

It is the first shipment of food aid to leave Ukraine since Kiev signed an agreement in July with Russia, mediated by Turkey and supervised by the United Nations, which provides for the export of Ukrainian grain, which was suspended due to the war between the two countries.

"We've already planned for more ships to leave Ukraine's ports to help people around the world. It's the first of a number of humanitarian ships leaving ports," Marian Ward, assistant director of operations for the World Food Programme, told reporters.

The first commercial ship left on August 1, and 16 ships have departed from Ukraine since the agreement entered into force, according to a census of the Ukrainian authorities.

No UN humanitarian ship has yet left the port.

Ukraine and Russia are among the world's largest exporters of wheat, whose prices are skyrocketing due to the war.

The World Food Program confirms that 345 million people, a record number, in 82 countries, are facing food shortages today.

While fifty million people in 45 countries are threatened with starvation if they do not receive humanitarian aid.