Ukraine took two bold steps toward securing export routes for its vital grain industry on Tuesday, sending a ship loaded with wheat along a new Black Sea route in the face of Russian naval aggression and challenging one of its main allies, Poland, over its opposition to Ukrainian imports.
In an initial success, the ship, the Resilient Africa, which is loaded with 3,000 metric tons of wheat, crossed the maritime border into Romanian waters on Tuesday evening.
It arrived more than 12 hours after it left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, according to the MarineTraffic website, which tracks global shipping using satellite data.
The importance of establishing a new sea route grew still greater this week in the face of a renewed dispute between Ukraine and its grain-producing European Union neighbors about overland exports.
But though the Resilient Africa appears to have navigated itself safely out of Ukrainian waters, experts say much uncertainty remains over whether the country will be able to rebuild a vital industry weighed down by 19 months of war.
Locations:
Ukraine, Poland, Africa, Chornomorsk