KYIV (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The infrastructure ministry of Ukraine informed that a ship with Ukrainian grain sailed out of the port of Odesa on Monday morning to Lebanon. This is the first ship to leave the ports since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
After weeks of talks between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by the UN and Turkey, the Sierra Leone ship Razoni, with 26,000 tonnes of corn, eventually departed. Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has been preventing access to Ukraine’s ports, causing a global grain scarcity that has prompted the UN to issue a hunger emergency alert.
Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, stated on Monday that Ukraine, along with its allies, had made another attempt towards preventing world hunger. Kubrakov emphasised that Ukraine had “done everything” to repair the ports and that the end of the embargo would bring in $1 billion in foreign exchange revenues for the country’s economy.
One of the major grain producers in the world is Ukraine. There are approximately 20 million tonnes of grain sitting in Ukraine, waiting to be exported. The blockade has led to a global grain shortage, higher prices, and the threat of famine in several grain-importing nations, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.
Since the start of the Russian invasion, 16 loaded vessels, according to Kubrakov, have been stranded in Ukrainian ports. According to officials, the ports will regain their full transport capability in weeks to come.
But after an attack on the port of Odesa a week ago, the world is waiting to see if Russia keeps up its end of the bargain.
A pact signed on July 22 in Istanbul said that Russia would permit ships carrying grains to leave Ukraine and would refrain from attacking them. But when Russian soldiers attacked Odesa port less than 24 hours later, the validity of the agreement was called into question.
In response to questions from Turkey’s defence minister, Russia first denied involvement in the attack. However, the next day it released a statement in which it claimed to have targeted a Ukrainian vessel that was in the port and carrying western weapons. Russia’s answer was rejected by Ukrainian officials.
Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Turkish president, stated that he wanted to avoid taking “any actions that go against the spirit of the agreement,” adding that doing so would be “disadvantageous to us all.”
After claiming that Russia had damaged the credibility of its agreements, the US said that it was putting together a plan B to increase grain exports from Ukraine via its rivers and trains.
Since the ban, Ukraine has been able to export over 4 million tonnes of grain via the Danube River and its trains, but much more work must be done, according to experts, in order to return to the prewar export levels of 6 million to 8 million tonnes per month.
Experts in the field believe finding insurance and crews willing to assume the risk will be a significant barrier for exports both now and in the future.
Ascot, Lloyd’s of London insurer and broker Marsh, declared on Friday that they started marine cargo and war insurance for grain and food products travelling out of Black Sea ports.
Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine, stated that even though the UK was not a part of the contract, it had aided in getting the ships commercial insurance from companies in London. Ascot’s announcement indicated that progress is in process.
According to Simmons, insurance firms were concerned about the port attack, but they shouldn’t be discouraged. The most important thing was to not be afraid of Russia’s tactics because that was exactly what they were: strategies to prevent this.
