Maritime corridor has no schedule, ships move as situation demands - Kiev

MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - The temporary maritime corridor in the Black Sea does not have a set schedule, and ships move as the situation demands, spokesperson for the joint press center of the South operative command Natalia Gumenyuk said at the national telethon as reported by Ukrainian media.

The maritime corridor operates without guarantees from international partners, and the Ukrainian side keeps the corridor functional on its own, Gumenyuk said.

"There is no set schedule, there are opportunities which are used," she said.

Ukrainian media also said quoting the Ministry for the Restoration of Ukraine that four bulkers exported almost 130,000 tonnes of grain and 10,000 tonnes of metal for Africa, Asia and Europe through the maritime corridor on Friday, October 27.

"The ships departed from the Greater Odessa ports. At the same time, 11 civilian ships entered the ports of Odessa, Chernormorsk and Yuzhny to load almost 225,000 tonnes of agricultural and metal products," the ministry said.

A total of 62 ships have passed through the corridor since the middle of September and 37 of them transported over 1.3 million tonnes of Ukrainian agricultural and other exports, the ministry said.

The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said in the evening of October 25 that traffic through the maritime corridor was suspended until October 26, 2023. Some market actors said that the operation was de facto suspended for the two previous days.

Later on, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine Alexander Kubrakov said on social media that information about the cancellation or unpredictable shutdown of the corridor was not true. He said that Greater Odessa ports continued to receive inbound ships through the temporary corridor.

Five ships with a total deadweight of 163,260 tonnes arrived in the Greater Odessa ports on Sunday, and two of them had passed through the Ukrainian maritime corridor twice, Ukrainian media said with the reference to a social network post by Andrei Klimenko, head of the Black Sea Strategic Research Institute's monitoring group.

"Five ships with a total deadweight of 163,260 tonnes have arrived in the Greater Odessa ports. The ships belong to owners from Greece, Turkey, Liberia and Panama. Two out of the five ships are passing the corridor for a second time," the post sid.

It was noted that four ships with a total deadweight of 168,014 tonnes with owners in Greece and Turkey had departed from the Greater Odessa ports.