First vessel through ‘humanitarian corridor’ reaches Istanbul

Istanbul, The Gulf Observer: The first vessel that passed through a ‘humanitarian corridor’ announced by Ukraine in the Black Sea has reached the Istanbul Strait.

The Hong Kong-flagged Joseph Schulte container ship is the first vessel that departed from Odessa port after Russia’s withdrawal from the Türkiye-brokered Black Sea grain deal last month.

Ukraine last week announced the “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release cargo ships that have been trapped in its ports after the termination of the main grain exports deal.

The vessel entered the Istanbul Strait through the Black Sea at 6.10 am local time (0310 GMT) on Friday.

The container-laden vessel will anchor at Istanbul’s Ambarli port.

Moscow has not indicated whether it would respect the shipping corridor, and shipping and insurance sources have expressed concerns about safety.

Ukraine said the corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships that were stuck in Ukrainian ports.

On Thursday, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov announced the sailing of the ship from Odessa port.

“Container ship Joseph Schulte (Hong Kong flag) is proceeding through corridor established for civilian vessels to/from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine. This transport corridor will be primarily used to evacuate ships that were in ports at the time of the full-scale invasion of Russia,” Kubrakov said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

On July 17, Russia suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal, which it signed last July along with Türkiye, the UN, and Ukraine to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February.

But even when renewing the deal in previous months, Moscow has complained that the Russian part of the agreement was not being implemented.

Ankara has been carrying out intense efforts and pushing diplomacy for the resumption of the Black Sea grain deal.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan previously invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Türkiye in August to discuss the deal.

Türkiye, internationally praised for its unique mediator role between Ukraine and Russia, has repeatedly called on Kiev and Moscow to end the war, now over 500 days old, through negotiations.