Another cargo vessel leaves Odesa port via Ukraine’s Black Sea corridor

On Saturday, August 26, the second vessel left the port of Odesa despite  Russia's withdrawal from the grain agreement on July 16, 2023.

After the Kremlin's threats to treat merchant ships as a military threat, a Ukraine-supported temporary corridor for the export of goods has been in place, says Andrii Klymenko, founder of the Institute for Black Sea Strategic Communications.

The PRIMUS bulk carrier is said to have left Odesa at around 9 a.m. It had been in the Ukrainian port since February 20, 2022.

The ship is scheduled to arrive in Varna, Bulgaria, on Sunday, August 27.

The first commercial vessel, Hong-Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, was announced to be heading for the Bosphorus within the newly created temporary corridor from the ports of the Odesa region.

According to the deputy prime minister, the container train has been in the port of Odesa since February 23, 2022, left the Vorontsovskyi lighthouse, and is heading for the Bosphorus. More than 30,000 tons of cargo (2,114 containers), including food, are on board.

On July 17, the Kremlin refused to extend the grain deal. Putin's spokesman, Dmitriy Peskov, said that the agreements on the grain initiative had been effectively terminated.

After that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed that Turkey and the UN continue the "grain initiative" in a trilateral format. Ukraine is considering the possibility of transporting food through the territorial waters of Romania and Bulgaria.

Almost a month after Russia turned back from the grain deal, Ukraine announced opening temporary corridors in the Black Sea for merchant ships. However, the Ukrainian Navy emphasized that the threat from Russia remains.