ISTANBUL (AP) — Three more ships with grain have departed Ukrainian ports and are headed to Turkey for inspection, Turkey's defense ministry said on Friday.

The three ships are loaded with a total of 58,000 tons of corn.

The departure of the ships comes after the first grain ship since the start of the war left Ukraine earlier this week. It crossed the Black Sea under a wartime deal and passed inspection Wednesday in Istanbul and then headed on to Lebanon.

Ukraine is one of the world's main breadbaskets and the stocks of grain trapped were exacerbating a sharp rise of food prices and raising fears of a global hunger crisis.