Ukraine proposes Türkiye re-open grain corridor without Russia

Ukraine has submitted an official proposal to Türkiye to restore a Black Sea grain corridor for Ukrainian exports without Russia's participation, Ukrainian Ambassador to the state Vasyl Bodnar says.

The ambassador explained that the proposal is "rational" as cargo ships already travel through Romanian, Bulgarian, and Turkish territorial waters of the Black Sea.

Russia has frequently restricted passage to merchant ships and attempted to regulate access rules to Ukrainian ports despite being an equal counterpart in the deal.

Since there are no export restrictions on Ukrainian products for ships passing through this humanitarian corridor, the suggested option may be top 1 to choose to resolve the situation, the ambassador adds.

We also expect high-level communication between Ukraine and Türkiye. Perhaps it will be in the coming days, or perhaps within the framework of the UN General Assembly to understand where we can move forward.

We are, of course, taking a constructive stance towards our partners Türkiye, the UN and mediators and will work out mechanisms that will be beneficial to our side, but will not harm the principled position on lifting sanctions against Russia, which is absolutely the wrong way, Bodnar summarized.

Previously, during a bilateral meeting with Croatian PM Andrej Plenković at the summit of the Three Seas initiative in Bucharest, Ukrainian Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko announced that Ukraine has started exporting grain through Croatian seaports.

In July, Russia announced its withdrawal from the grain deal due to alleged non-compliance with its terms. After that, the occupiers began shelling southern Ukraine's ports and grain infrastructure.

Later in August, Ukraine responded to the blackmailing by opening corridors for civilian merchant ships in the Black Sea.

Then, on August 16, the first civilian cargo vessel that used Ukraine's Black Sea corridor crossed through Turkey's Bosphorus Strait despite Russia's sabotage. The Hong-Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte container ship that left the Russian-blocked Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa earlier this week had been in the port the day before the start of Russia's full-scale war.