Reuters — Some 151 ships have used Ukraine’s new Black Sea shipping corridor since it was set up in August, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Friday, citing a senior government official.
A total of 4.4 million metric tons of cargo, including 3.2 million tons of grain, has been shipped via the corridor, Yuriy Vaskov, deputy minister for renovation and infrastructure, was quoted as saying.
A U.N.-backed deal that had allowed safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea collapsed in July after Russia withdrew.
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In response, Ukraine announced a “humanitarian corridor” hugging the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.
Vaskov said that 30 ships were currently loading at Ukrainian ports. They included 22 ships that would carry 700,000 tons of grain and eight ships readying 500,000 tons of other cargo.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading grain producers and exporters. Keeping grain exports flowing is key for its economy, which shrank by about a third last year. It is expected to grow by about 5% this year.
Free grain sent to Africa, says Russia
Russia’s agriculture minister said on Friday that Moscow had begun free shipments of grain totaling up to 200,000 tonnes to six African countries, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Dmitry Patrushev said that ships headed for Burkina Faso and Somalia had already left Russian ports, and that additional shipments to Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali and the Central African Republic would soon follow.
Putin had promised to deliver free grain to the six countries at a summit with African leaders in July, soon after Moscow withdrew from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war with Russia.
The deal, known as the Black Sea grain initiative, had helped lower prices on the global market. But Putin argued it was failing to get supplies to the countries in most urgent need.
Last year, Russia exported around 60 million tonnes of grain, according to Putin. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called the promises of free grain “a handful of donations”.
Since quitting the arrangement, Russia has repeatedly bombed Ukrainian ports and grain storage facilities, and Kyiv says hundreds of thousands of tons of cereals have been destroyed.
