On Wednesday, a container ship departed Odesa for Istanbul. This was the first vessel to depart Ukraine’s ports after Russia threatened to strike civilian shipping in Black Sea last month.
Oleg Kiper, Odesa’s governor, wrote on Telegram that the ship left Odesa soon after Russia had attacked one of Ukraine’s two Danube River ports for a third time since July. The Russians destroyed and damaged granaries, warehouses and other facilities.
Owners of the ship carrying over 30,000 tonnes, including food, announced on Wednesday night that it had cleared Ukrainian waters.
Spire Global, maritime data analysts, reported that the signal of the ship was not picked up until several hours after it had left.
The increased risk of Ukrainian grain exports pushed benchmark wheat prices up 1.4 percent to $6.06 per bushel. Grain prices are down from over $10 per bushel a little more than a year ago. They’re also lower after bumper harvests Russia, and other food producers.
After its withdrawal from the agreement, Russia announced that all civilian vessels traveling to or from Ukraine’s port would be considered military targets. Since the collapse of the agreement, Ukraine has used its two Danube River ports, Reni, and Izmail to transit grain via canal to the Romanian Port of Constanta from where exports can then be shipped by ship.
Oleksandr Kubakov, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister, said that despite Russian threats, the Hong Kong flagged Joseph Schulte made its way along a civilian vessel corridor.
The Joseph Schulte was co-owned by Bernhard Schulte and a German bank. An unnamed Chinese company also owned a portion of the vessel. The company stated that the vessel used the route , submitted by Ukraine and accepted by International Maritime Organization on August 10, travelling via Ukraine’s and Romanian territorial waters to Istanbul.
The company said that the ship’s crew is Ukrainian. It docked in Odesa, Ukraine on February 23, 2022, a day prior to Russia’s invasion.
“If Russia decides escalate, it will be in a direct conflict with Germany and their Chinese allies,” Gennadiy ivanov, director of BPG Shipping a Ukrainian dry-bulk shipping company which operates out of Odesa and Dubai, as well as Greece.
Ivanov stated that more ships would be using the route if it worked.
Everyone knows that Ukraine has no other option. It’s important to export a large amount of grain through the Ukrainian Black Sea ports. “The Danube cannot handle it all,” Ivanov said.
Reni and Izmail are increasingly used by Ukraine to continue exports. According to the Russian defence ministry, Russia fired warning shots on a Turkish vessel that was trying to reach Izmail Sunday. The ports were not used much before the war but they became a major part of Ukraine’s grain trade when the Black Sea Grain Initiative was active.
Sorin Grindeanu, Romania’s Transport Minister, said that Romania intends to double the amount Ukrainian grain exported via Constanta. It will do this by hiring more personnel and completing infrastructure projects in order to ease the passage of ships through the Sulina Canal on the Danube. The canal links Constanta to the two Ukrainian border ports.