Two cargo ships loaded with grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday and took the humanitarian maritime corridor to Turkey, despite Russia's pullout, according to the Marine Traffic website, Euronews reports.
A total of twelve cargo ships are due to leave the Black Sea ports controlled by Ukraine on Monday, and four others are heading for them.
One of those, under a Turkish flag, has already set sail, said the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which oversees the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
The transport of Ukrainian grain was blocked in the Black Sea on Sunday after Russia suspended the export agreement vital for global food supplies, a decision blasted by Kyiv, Washington and the EU.
Earlier, the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine were said to have decided to continue implementing the grain deal after movement was halted on Sunday, with a transit plan in place for 16 ships on Monday now active.
Ukraine's government said that 218 ships involved in grain exports had been blocked — 22 loaded and stuck at ports, 95 loaded and departed from ports, and 101 awaiting inspections.
One of the ships, with 40,000 tonnes of grain bound for Ethiopia under the United Nations aid programme, could not leave port on Sunday due to Russia's "blockage", Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter, adding that exports were now "impossible".
NATO has joined an international chorus calling on Russia to reverse its decision.
Russia said on Sunday that it will have "contacts" with Turkey and the UN "soon" on the grain deal, the state news agency TASS reported, quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko.
But, it added, this would only happen once all circumstances surrounding "Ukraine's attack" on its Black Sea fleet had been clarified and a UN Security Council meeting held.
Kyiv has denounced Moscow's linking the grain deal suspension to the alleged attack in Crimea as a "false pretext", calling for pressure to be brought to bear to ensure that Russia "recommits to its obligations".
The UN-brokered deal, which allowed Ukraine to export agricultural produce, has seen more than nine million tonnes of grain exported during the war and has brought down soaring global food prices.