On Thursday, a civilian cargo ship sailing from Ukraine entered Turkish waters in violation of a Moscow blockade that saw Russian military forces strike another ship.
The Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte, the first ship to directly oppose Russia’s new attempt to limit Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea, departed the port of Odesa on Wednesday.
Marine traffic tracking websites showed it going along a western course, avoiding international seas in favor of those governed by NATO countries Romania and Bulgaria, before entering Turkish territory.
A German business that shares ownership of the container ship predicted that it will “probably” arrive in Istanbul later on Thursday.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, claimed that the ship was using a “new humanitarian corridor” that his country had formed after Russia last month reneged on a historic agreement permitting Ukraine to export grain and other goods across the Black Sea.
Days prior to the Joseph Schulte’s mission, a small cargo ship with a Turkish crew that was sailing to the Ukrainian port of Izmail was boarded by the Russian navy after it had fired warning shots.
Since withdrawing from the grain agreement negotiated by the UN and Turkey, Russia has increased its attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Black Sea and Danube River.
The new maritime route, according to Oleksandr Kubrakov, minister of infrastructure for Ukraine, “will be used primarily to evacuate ships that were in ports at the time of the full-scale invasion” in February of last year.
But at the same time that the globe is concentrating on how to secure grain export routes in time for this autumn’s harvest, Ukraine has decided to face Russia over sea access.
Major exporters of grain and seed oil are Ukraine and Russia.
