Ukraine opens new temporary corridor for ships in Black Sea
A cargo container ship left the Black Sea port of Odessa on Wednesday morning on a new temporary corridor for merchant vessels to and from Ukrainian ports blocked by Russia, the Ukrainian government announced.
The ship, the Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, has been in port since February 23, 2022, the day before the Russian invasion. It is carrying 30,000 tonnes of cargo in 2,114 containers.
The corridor was created last week by Ukraine in an effort to allow ships that have been blocked in Ukrainian ports since the start of the war to resume their journey. However, it is not clear whether Russia will respect the corridor, and commercial shipping and insurance sources have expressed concern about its safety.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that the corridor will be used mainly for the evacuation of ships that were in Ukrainian ports at the time of the invasion.
