The Ukraine is seeking alternative routes to export grain by dredging deeper shipping channels into the Danube as early as this year. A quarter of Ukraine’s agricultural exports currently pass through its Danube ports, while half exits via its Black Sea ports and another quarter traverses Ukraine’s western land border.
The Danube forms a portion of the Ukraine’s South West border with Romania, and has already been dredged to 6.5 metres from 3.9 metres along its Bystre Canal with the aim of increasing food exports from its river ports. The Deputy Minister of Renovation and Infrastructure, Yuriy Vaskov, said that Ukraine would like to extend the depth to 7.2 metres, similar to the Romanian canal at Sulina, and intended to hold talks with European Union officials on the matter in the near future. Romania has said it is concerned that any work on the waterway through the shared delta area could threaten wildlife at the UNESCO World Heritage Site and break international environmental protection treaties.
Ukraine’s most crucial port of Odessa is currently blockaded against a potential Russian attack. The country’s road and rail network to Europe is functioning at full capacity but is not sufficient to accommodate all of Ukraine’s imports and exports. Ahead of the international Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on June 21-22, it has been proposed that international shipping take out war insurance and trade with Sevastopol regardless of the Russian threat. Kurt Volker, a Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, has posited that any attempt at Russian interference could then be regarded as Piracy and legally handled as such by the international community.
CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE NEWS
Dredging the Danube to Reach Ukraine
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