Reuters’ Guy Faulconbridge and Tuvan Gumrukcu reported Monday that “Russia and Ukraine negotiated for two months with Turkey on a deal to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea and reached agreement on a text that was to be announced by Ankara but Kyiv suddenly pulled out, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”
“A deal was reached in March ‘to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea’, and though Ukraine did not want to sign it formally, Kyiv gave its assent for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to announce it on March 30, the day before critical regional elections, the sources said,” Faulconbridge and Gumrukcu reported. “‘At the very last minute, Ukraine suddenly pulled out and the deal was scuttled,’ said one of the sources.”
“It was not immediately clear why Ukraine pulled out. The people who spoke to Reuters said they did not know what had prompted Kyiv’s decision,” Faulconbridge and Gumrukcu reported. “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in February that without new U.S. military aid, Ukraine would not be able to defend a Black Sea shipping corridor hugging its western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.”
Current Shipping Corridor
The United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service reported in January that “after Russia terminated the (Black Sea Grain Initiative) in July 2023, Ukraine initiated the movement of civilian vessels through a new Ukrainian corridor to Chornomorsk, Odesa, and Pivdennyi ports in October 2023. According to press reports, vessels using the corridor follow neighboring countries’ territorial waters to reach the Bosphorus. They enter Ukrainian territorial waters from Romanian waters near the mouth of the Danube River. Afterward, they follow the specified route alongside coasts to a respective seaport.”
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