Traffic through the temporary grain corridor in the Black Sea may continue. Ukraine is working on ship insurance

Ukraine is considering further use of the temporary transport corridor for grain shipments after the Hong Kong-flagged civilian vessel Joseph Schulte used it for the first time last week.

Reuters writes about it.

Ukraine on August 10 announced a "humanitarian corridor" in the Black Sea to free cargo ships trapped in ports after the termination of the main grain export agreement. However, Moscow has not said whether it will respect the shipping corridor, and shipping and insurance sources have raised security concerns.

"So far, only one commercial vessel has passed, and it has shown willingness to take alternative routes. Then there should be the movement of potentially 7-8 more ships... Then, perhaps, in the future, these alternative routes will become a corridor for the movement of ships heading with loads of grain and oilseeds," said the Deputy Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council Denys Marchuk.

The Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksandr Hryban told the Financial Times that Kyiv, together with global insurers, is working on a scheme to cover the risks of grain ships heading to Black Sea ports and back. According to Marchuk, Ukraine has already allocated 20 billion hryvnias ($547 million) for ship insurance.

• On August 10, Ukraine announced temporary sea corridors for merchant vessels. There is a military threat and mine danger on all routes. If the owner or captain of the vessel officially confirms readiness to sail in the prevailing conditions, the vessel will be admitted to the route. Under these conditions, on August 16, the first merchant ship with more than 30 000 tons of cargo, including food, left the Odesa port. On August 18, the ship arrived in Istanbul.
• The last ship with Ukrainian food left the port of Odesa on July 16. On July 17, the Kremlin announced that it was withdrawing from the "grain agreement". Already on July 19, Russian troops carried out a missile and drone attack on the port infrastructure of Odesa, targeting the grain and oil terminals. Ukraine said that Russian troops targeted 26 port facilities, five civilian ships and destroyed at least 180 000 tons of grain.