Large container ships and ferries may soon return to Odesa ports. Such transportation may return to Ukraine in a few weeks.
“All container terminals are ready to handle container ships. Almost all of them are involved in the transshipment of agricultural and other products, but containers are a priority for them, and they are negotiating with potential shipowners and container lines. I hope that we will get the first call within two or three weeks,” said Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure Yurii Vaskov.
Meanwhile, according to media, the first container ship will sail through the sea corridor in a few days, much earlier than Vaskov said.
Transportation by sea ferries will also resume within a week.
Earlier this week, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction and Minister for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure, said that container transportation on the Danube from the ports of Izmail and Reni, as well as on the Black Sea from the ports of Odesa, would help unload the border with Poland.
Maritime corridor
Following Russia’s withdrawal from the grain corridor, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed that Turkey and the UN continue the grain initiative in a trilateral format. The government noted that Ukraine plans to insure ships that will use the grain corridor.
In August 2023, Ukraine opened a maritime corridor primarily for civilian vessels that have been in ports since the start of the full-scale war with Russia.