Shipowners halt calls at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, wary of Russian strikes

(Reuters)

KYIV, July 23 – Shipowners halted vessel arrivals at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to ‌intensified Russian strikes, Kyiv said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Moscow might escalate attacks in order to block the country’s main corridor for grain exports.

In recent weeks, Russia has pummelled logistics and port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region with missiles and drones. On ​Sunday, a missile strike on a ship carrying corn killed 10 people, mostly foreigners, Ukrainian officials said.

“Yesterday… ​not a single ship entered the port,” Zelenskiy told reporters on Thursday. “They’ve been hitting all ⁠the ships. They’re going to step this up.”

Russia struck 28 civilian vessels and killed 21 people from June ​20 to July 20, according to Odesa regional prosecutors cited by local media.

Shipowners — wary of the attacks — have temporarily suspended ​vessel arrivals meant to pick up agricultural products at the ports, Ukraine’s agriculture minister Taras Vysotskyi said on Wednesday.

“Ukraine, as a state, has not imposed any restrictions,” Vysotskyi was cited as saying by Interfax-Ukraine.

The suspension reflects a rapidly deteriorating situation for Ukraine’s port ​logistics and export capacity, key for an economy that has been ravaged by Russia’s war.

As of last week, ​Ukraine, a major agricultural producer, has lost about a third of its capacity to export grain via the Black Sea ports ‌due to ⁠strikes, traders and analysts have said.

Moscow says it is hitting port infrastructure and vessels that support the Ukrainian military.