Ukraine has stepped up its use of a new shipping route that has allowed it to begin reviving grain exports to circumvent a de facto Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports.
Repeated airstrikes by Russian forces since July on Ukraine’s port of Odesa after the Kremlin’s withdrawal from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to export its food crops directly across the waters to Turkey had forced Ukraine to stop using its three Black Sea ports as an export route and work to establish an alternative.
Two ships successfully used the new route last week without incident, and three more cargo vessels have entered Ukrainian waters in recent days, according to officials.
When Moscow withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July, it said it would consider any vessel approaching a Ukrainian port to be a potential carrier of military cargo and therefore a threat.
The following month, members of the Russian military boarded a cargo vessel at gunpoint, reflecting the rising tensions on the Black Sea, which Western analysts have warned could escalate into violence involving countries not directly involved in the war.
Organizations:
Russian, Moscow, Initiative
Locations:
Ukraine, Ukraine’s, Odesa, Turkey