A first commercial ship, loaded with metal, left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, conquered by Russian forces, to reach Rostov-on-the-Don in Russia, the pro-Russian separatist leader Denis Pushilin announced on Tuesday.

"Today 2500 tons of rolls of rolled sheet metal left the port of Mariupol, the boat headed for Rostov", writes the leader of the pro-Russian separatists of Donetsk on his Telegram messenger.

“This transport node is very important for the Donbass”, underlines Denis Pouchiline. "It's a very important port on the Sea of ​​Azov and the only one where you can tranship all types of goods, including in winter," he explains.

The leader also indicated that part of the ships from the port of Mariupol would pass into the commercial fleet of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk (DNR). “Part of the boats will come under the jurisdiction of the DNR,” he said, quoted by Russian agencies, specifying that these ships would be “renamed”.

Located on the Sea of ​​Azov, which overlooks the Black Sea, the port of Mariupol was before the offensive in Ukraine of the Kremlin, launched on February 24, the second most important civilian port of Ukraine after that of Odessa.

In particular, it made it possible to export en masse the gigantic Ukrainian production of cereals, now blocked in the country because of the conflict, which raises fears of a world food crisis.

The Kremlin had announced the conquest of Mariupol on April 21, after fighting that left the city largely destroyed.

But the last Ukrainian defenders on the spot, entrenched in the huge Azovstal steelworks, only surrendered about a month later, after almost three months of fighting.

On May 24, the Russian army announced that it had cleared 1.5 million square meters of the port's maritime area, as well as 18 quays and 32 ships, thus allowing port activities to resume.

But Moscow has repeatedly insisted on lifting Western sanctions against it as a prerequisite for allowing grain exports to resume.