The Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni leaves Odesa for Lebanon with 26,000 tonnes of corn
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Shortly after dawn on Monday a Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship nudged out of Odesa carrying 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn. The shipment, heading initially for Lebanon, could be a sign of hope in the ragged, bloody war that followed the Russian invasion more than five months ago. But it is the most fragile of moments that hinges on trusting Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Russian and Turkish leaders, on faith in diplomacy in a hot war and on the readiness of the West to keep bolstering the defence of Ukraine.
One would need to be a particularly hardy breed of optimist to believe that Mr Putin has had a change of heart. His Black Sea blockade seemed to be Moscow’s way of bringing
