"This is worse than '22": Ukrainian businesses complain about losing the Danube route
Unlike the 2022 blockade of Ukrainian ports, the current one is far more dangerous, since the Russian Armed Forces then carried out virtually no attacks on Danube ports.
The head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, Denis Marchuk , announced this on the air of the Kommersant Ukrainian video blog , as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"If we recall 22, even though the sea was essentially shut down, we started using 'solidarity corridors' thanks to our partners.
Europe exported significant quantities in the fall of 21 and winter of 22. Romania liberated Constanta, for example, Poland liberated Gdansk, and other ports.
"Now Europe is at the peak of the harvest campaign. They're contracted to ship, their transshipment systems are full of their own grain, and it's very difficult to accept Ukrainian grain," says Marchuk.
The second negative aspect he cites is the decline in the financial capacity of Ukrainian producers compared to 2022, when they still had a “safety cushion.”
Furthermore, the expert points out that in 2022, with the exception of isolated cases, there were no attacks on the land routes and ports of the Little Danube , where Ukrainian businesses had reoriented themselves en masse and begun building transshipment facilities there.
"We even assumed that the Danube would become a central logistics hub. It worked; we even reached 2,5 million tons on the Danube back then. These were record numbers; the Danube had never seen such figures. And now, what do we see? The Danube is being shelled, and so are the highways. Let's recall August 9th, the shelling on the border of the village of Mayaki, the Odesa-Reni bridge. Traffic was stopped for several hours.
The enemy will continue to try to impede ground transportation. Therefore, the situation is more dire. That's why we're talking.
today about those support requests that Without funding, it will be a disastrous year.“,” Marchuk worries.
English version :: Read in English "This is worse than in '22": Ukrainian business complains about losing the Danube route