The first ship departed from the port of Odessa towards the Bosphorus after Russia withdrew from the grain deal and began a sea blockade of Ukrainian ports, said Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov.
According to him, the container ship Joseph Schulte, which has been in the port of Odessa since February 23 last year, under the flag of Hong Kong and with 30,000 tons of cargo, including food, is moving along the humanitarian corridor established by Kiev.
“The corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships that were in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny at the time of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation,” Kubrakov specified. The owner of the ship confirmed going to sea and moving towards the Bosphorus.
Kyiv agreed on temporary routes for the passage of civilian ships with the International Maritime Association (IMO), which recognizes Ukraine’s right to free commercial navigation. Formally, the routes began to operate on August 8, 2023.
“We warned shipowners and captains that it is impossible to guarantee 100% safety at the moment,” said Dmitry Pletenchuk, a representative of the Ukrainian Navy. At the same time, Kyiv promised to make humanitarian corridors “very transparent.”
“We will put cameras on the ships, and there will be a broadcast to show that this is a purely humanitarian mission and has no military purpose,” Oleg Chalyk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy command, assured.
Russia withdrew from the grain deal with Ukraine, Turkey and the UN on July 17, accusing the West of failing to honor its end of the deal to remove restrictions on Russian agricultural exports and reconnect Rosselkhozbank to the international SWIFT system.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, after withdrawing from the deal, threatened that it would consider all ships in the Black Sea that go to Ukrainian ports as potential carriers of military cargo. On August 13, the patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation “Vasily Bykov” opened warning fire in the direction of a dry cargo ship sailing under the flag of Palau, which was heading to the Ukrainian port of Izmail. Then a group of Russian military men landed on the cargo ship and inspected the ship. Kyiv accused Moscow of piracy and promised an “optimal” response.
Following Russia’s demarche, US officials began talks with Turkey, Ukraine and neighboring countries about using more alternative routes for Ukrainian grain exports, US officials told The Wall Street Journal .
The US-backed plan calls for an increase in Ukrainian grain exports to 4 million tons per month by October. At the same time, most of the grain should be sent along the Danube River and across the Black Sea to nearby ports in Romania, and then to other destinations. This route will be more expensive and slower, but could be an alternative if Russia doesn’t get back into the grain deal, the WSJ notes.
Source : MOSCOWTIMES