A ship carrying Ukrainian grain left the port of Odessa on Monday morning destined for Lebanon, the first since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry.

The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of corn, finally set sail after weeks of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, led by Turkey and the United Nations. Russia has been blockading Ukraine’s ports since the start of the war, stoking a worldwide grain shortage that has caused the UN to warn of a looming hunger catastrophe.

“Ukraine, together with our partners, has taken another step today in preventing world hunger,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said on Monday. Kubrakov stressed that Ukraine had done “everything” to restore the ports and that the lifting of the blockade would give Ukraine’s economy $1bn in foreign exchange revenue.

Read more: The Guardian