Black Sea: as of August 1, 16 ships broke through the “grain blockade”

As of the evening of July 31, 16 ships that passed after the closure of the “grain corridor” were at the anchorage southwest of Zmiiny Island.

Andriy Klymenko, an expert at the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies, writes about this.

“Some of them came there quite a long time ago, just when and after the barbarians of the East made their barbarous declarations. A few more are currently on their way from the Bosphorus,” reports the expert.

According to Andriy Klymenko, this is the result of the work of the Ukrainian Navy:

“And at last. 07/25/2023 – i.e. already 7 days after the termination of Russia’s participation in the “grain corridor” – the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced a night attack by two unmanned boats (sea drones) on the patrol ship “Sergei Kotov” of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. He performed tasks related to “shipping control” in the southwestern part of the Black Sea – 370 kilometers from Sevastopol (130 km from the Bosphorus Strait). This, by the way, is the exclusive maritime economic zone of Turkey. And the barbarians are afraid of Ukrainian drones. Why? — because this is already the 3rd attack.”

We will remind that on July 17, Russian government officials announced the termination of the “grain agreement”. It lasted 2 months. Russia is ready to return to the agreement if sanctions are eased, in particular, the connection of the Russian Rosselkhozbank to Swift.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, commented on Russia’s statement on withdrawing from the “grain agreement”. He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will ask Turkey and the UN whether they are ready to continue the work of the initiative.

The agreement made it possible to safely transport approximately 30 million tons of grain since its signing in July 2022. This has helped reduce global food prices, which have risen to record highs since the Russian invasion. One of the best destinations for Ukrainian grain is China and Spain.

The transportation of grain through the Black Sea was hindered by constant interruptions in the joint inspection of ships. The speed of these surveys will be crucial to Ukraine’s ability to realize the wheat harvest harvested since July.

However, even after the extension of the agreement, Russia repeatedly violated it, deliberately delaying inspections of vessels entering Ukrainian seaports.

Danube shipping remains an alternative to the “grain agreement” for Ukraine. In 6 months of 2023, the Danube ports located on the Ukrainian coast handled more than 14 million tons of cargo. Ukrainian grain is also transported by rail to Europe.

Tags: grain, Black Sea, transportation, global food prices, ships, grain corridor