Ukraine announced on Thursday the opening of temporary corridors in the Black Sea to allow the transport of grain, despite Russia warning that the ships could be attacked by Russian forces.
“Temporary corridors have been announced for commercial ships entering and leaving Ukrainian seaports on the Black Sea,” the Ukrainian navy said in a statement.
“The corridors have been open since midnight,” navy spokesman Oleg Tchalyk told the French news agency AFP, without specifying for how long.
It was not immediately clear if any ships had already left the Ukrainian coast.
According to Oleg Tchalyk, all ships traveling through the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports “will be equipped with surveillance cameras” to make the journey “as transparent as possible.”
Ships exporting Ukrainian grain “do not pose any military threat,” the spokesman told AFP.
In mid-July, Russia terminated the agreement that had allowed Ukrainian grain to leave ports in the south of the country since last summer.
The cereals were retained in the ports due to the blockade imposed by Russia, as part of the war that began against the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
On July 19, Moscow warned that any ship using Ukrainian ports would be considered a potential target.
kyiv reacted the next day, saying the same would apply to the Russian ships.
Since then, the number of attacks in the Black Sea has increased from both sides and the Russian army has repeatedly attacked Odessa, a major port in southern Ukraine, as well as the river ports of Izmail and Reni.
kyiv denounced the attacks as a way to hamper grain exports.
The disruptions in exports of cereals and other agricultural products caused by the war raised fears of a situation of global insecurity.
Before the war, Ukraine and Russia together supplied 28% of the world’s wheat, 29% of barley, 15% of corn and 75% of sunflower oil, according to the British magazine The Economist.
In July 2022, the United Nations signed agreements with Russia and Ukraine, in which it also involved Turkey, to allow the removal of grain held in Ukrainian ports.
A year later, Moscow refused to renew the agreements on the grounds that Western sanctions made it impossible to enforce one of the terms, which was the export of Russian products, including fertilizers.
According to the UN, the agreement made it possible to export “more than 32 million tons of food products from three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea to 45 countries on three continents.”
Source: TSF
