Ukraine is in talks with Turkey, Egypt and India on the possibility of opening up Black Sea civil navigation, particularly for agriculture exports, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The country’s Black Sea ports are the main route for Ukraine’s food exports, capable of shipping up to 40 million tons of grain within the marketing season. Since August, such shipments were halted amid Russian air attacks on port infrastructure and ships. “We cannot manage this volume of shipments by rail,” Zelenskyy said.
Turkey, Egypt and India proposed safe navigation for vessels under their flags, Zelenskyy said, with ships entering both Ukrainian and Russian ports and transporting the food. “One ship heading to our port, and the other to Russian and we accept agreements not to strike either of these vessels,” he said. Russia opposes the plan despite regular calls from Turkish, Indian and Egyptian intermediaries, Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv has also asked the European Union to renew its programme of solidarity lanes, which allowed Ukraine to export grain via European railways and ports at the beginning of Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022. “We are asking the EU to reinstate the ‘solidarity lanes’ to facilitate grain exports,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone needs this grain.”
Ukraine faced massive strikes on its civilian port infrastructure following its attacks last summer on the Russian shadow fleet, which exports mostly sanctioned oil and fuel products. Kyiv can currently export only 38 percent of regular volumes, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry as reported by Bloomberg. The corridor proposal therefore sits alongside, and in tension with, the energy war: the same shadow fleet that moves Russian diesel under the new US waiver is the fleet Ukraine has been striking, and a no strike agreement covering grain ships would be the first negotiated restraint on that campaign.