Twelve ships carrying grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Russia having abandoned a UN-backed deal to guarantee exports from Ukraine.

The resumption of food exports from Ukrainian ports suggested a much-feared scenario had been averted for now. International officials had feared that Moscow would reimpose a blockade on Ukrainian grain, after Russia announced on Saturday that it was withdrawing from the UN-backed program that escorts cargo ships through the Black Sea.

"Civilian cargo ships can never be a military target or held hostage. The food must flow," tweeted Amir Abdullah, the UN official who coordinates the program.

Shortly after, Ukraine confirmed that 12 ships had set sail. The 354,500 tonnes of grain they carried was far more than typically leave in a single day, suggesting a backlog was being cleared after exports were interrupted on Sunday.

Ukraine and Russia are both among the world's largest exporters of food. For three months, the UN-backed deal has guaranteed Ukrainian exports can reach markets, preventing what international officials had said could have been global famine.

The news that Moscow was pulling out of the deal had sent global wheat prices soaring by more than 5 percent on Monday morning.

Moscow said it was forced to pull out of the shipping deal after blaming Kyiv for explosions that damaged Russian navy ships in a Crimean port on Saturday.

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind those blasts but says Russia's navy is a legitimate military target. Moscow said the blasts were caused by a fleet of sea and air drones.

The ships that sailed on Monday included one hired by the UN World Food Program to bring 40,000 tonnes of grain to drought-hit Africa.

(Cover: Razoni, which departed from the port of Odessa carrying a cargo of 26,527 tonnes of corn, anchors off coast of Istanbul, Türkiye, August 3, 2022. /CFP)

(With input from Reuters)