Moon of Alabama summarizes reports from the International Maritime Organization and the Russia Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine to refute the claim that Russia is blockading Ukrainian wheat, refusing it to allow Ukrainian ports for export.
Some 80 vessels from 17 nations remain trapped in Ukrainian ports. They are stuck there for several reasons:
• The risk of being casualties of military operations.
• The presence of mines and sunken barges and cranes
• Ukraine’s decision to hold ports at Maritime Security level 3, preventing entry or exit
• A lack of sufficient crew
At the start of the conflict, “approximately 2,000 seafarers were stranded aboard 94 vessels in Ukrainian ports,” reports the International Maritime Organization. At present, 450 stranded seafarers remain, an insufficient level to crew the remaining ships.
Russia offers a humanitarian corridor every day, operating from 8 am to 7 pm, to escort ships from the limits of Ukrainian territorial waters.
But Ukraine has set demands for the departure of the ships. Quoting the IMO: “Ukraine has also provided preconditions for the safe evacuation of ships from their ports. These include an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of troops, and ensuring freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, including carrying out mine-sweeping activities with the involvement of Black Sea littoral states.”
If Ukraine will not allow ships to leave ports until “an end to hostilities,” that doesn’t sound like a Russian blockade, does it? (https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/no-the-ukraine-war-has-not-stoked-a-global-food-crisis.html)
