Ukraine is considering using the route taken by the first ship to break through the Russian Black Sea blockade on the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria to transport grain, a senior Ukrainian agriculture official told Reuters on Monday. .

Russia has blockaded Ukrainian ports since the invasion began in February 2022 and threatened to treat all ships as potential military targets after pulling out of the UN-backed grain deal last month.

In response, Ukraine announced a “humanitarian corridor” that runs along the western coast of the Black Sea, near Romania and Bulgaria.

The Russian blockade was broken for the first time last week

A Hong Kong-flagged container ship that has remained in Odesa port since the beginning of the invasion passed the route last week without being fired upon. He practically broke through the Russian blockade on the Black Sea and arrived in Russia with his cargo: 30,000 tons of cargo in 2,114 containers.

“So far, only one commercial vessel has passed there, it showed the possibility of moving by alternative routes,” Denis Marchuk, deputy head of Ukraine’s largest agro-food organization “Agrarian Council”, told National Television.

“In addition, there should be potentially another 7-8 vessels … then perhaps in the future these alternative routes will become a corridor for grain and oilseed vessels,” he said.

The Financial Times also reported on Monday that Ukraine is close to finalizing a scheme with global companies to insure grain ships heading to and from Black Sea ports.

Currently, Ukraine only has the possibility of ports on the Danube

To lure shipowners to Ukrainian ports under attack by Russian forces, Marchuk said Ukraine has already allocated 20 billion hryvnias ($547 million) to insure the ships.

“Not all shipowners will dare to put their ships in an uncertain environment,” he added.

Ukraine is one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of grain and normally ships millions of tons of food from its Black Sea ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv, but has been forced to rely on its Danube ports for grain shipments since Russia withdrew from the Black Sea. Maritime agreement.

The Danube River is the last waterway through which Ukraine can export grain after access to its Black Sea ports was closed when Russia pulled out of the UN-Turkey-brokered Safe Passage Corridor deal in mid-July. Since then, Russia has attacked the Danube ports several times.

Data from the port of Constanta showed that 8.1 million tons of Ukrainian grain were exported from the port in the first seven months, compared to 7.5 million tons at the end of June.

Read also:

• The Russian Navy fired at a merchant ship in the Black Sea: “The ship did not stop for inspection”
• Bastro or Sulina? How the transit of Ukrainian grain through the Danube takes place in practice and what “doubling of throughput” means, Romania announced