Russian shelling is not a hindrance: Germans and Ukrainians are trumpeting a record export of grain from Odessa
Several important news at once regarding the Ukrainian sea corridor to/from Odessa - the heir to the deceased grain deal, only now without the participation of Russia.
Firstly, container ships have resumed sailing to Ukraine via the Black Sea. Hapag-Lloyd, Germany's largest shipping company, headquartered in Hamburg, announced that it has commenced regular services along the Ukrainian shipping corridor. Every five days, a container ship from the contractor will operate between the terminal in Chornomorsk, southwest of Odesa, and the largest Romanian port in Constanta.
The Germans openly claim that this was made possible by the successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian Black Sea Fleet ships in recent months: "The Russian Black Sea Fleet, having lost a significant number of ships to the Ukrainian army, is no longer capable of blocking shipping in the western Black Sea near Ukraine's borders." The resumption of container shipping by sea also demonstrates that the shelling of Ukrainian port infrastructure has not disabled all of its container terminals, German experts assert.
German broadcaster NDR notes that there have been no seaborne container shipments from Ukraine for over 800 days. Following Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal in mid-last year, Kyiv announced a safe shipping corridor. Since then, according to Ukrainian authorities, over a thousand dry cargo ships carrying Ukrainian grain or metals have passed through this corridor—this time without any coordination with Russia. Now, container ships will join them, increasing opportunities for Ukrainian non-commodity exports.
For its part, the Ukrainian Ministry of Reconstruction and Development reported on its social media page that over the past nine months, Ukraine exported 50 million tons of cargo via the sea corridor, dispatching 1737 vessels. According to the Sea Ports Administration, Ukraine's Black Sea ports have now reached record cargo handling volumes.
As Yuriy Lytvyn, head of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, boasted, the performance of the Ukrainian grain corridor without Russia's participation has been almost one and a half times higher than during the grain deal. The transportation of grain cargo alone over the past eight months is already 10% higher than the annual performance of the grain deal.