Ukraine will allocate $547 million to insure ships sailing along the corridors in the Black Sea

In Ukraine, a special insurance fund of 20 billion hryvnias (almost $547 million) has been created to ensure transportation through temporary corridors along the Black Sea. Sergei Labaznyuk, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy, told about this to the Rada TV channel.

“The government of Ukraine has made a decision and created an insurance fund in the amount of 20 billion hryvnia,” he said. According to him, this is “weighty enough” for foreign ship owners to be ready to send their ships to the ports of Ukraine.

Formerly former Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksandr Hryban informed newspaper Financial Times that Ukraine is close to an agreement with the world’s insurers to insure ships that will move along the corridors in the Black Sea. He specified that the deal is being discussed and actively worked out by all interested parties. Insurance of 5-30 ships may start in September.

On August 16, the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said that the container ship Joseph Schulte under the flag of Hong Kong left the port of Odessa on August 16 and is heading for the Bosphorus. The ship is carrying more than 30,000 tons of cargo, including food, he said. According to the minister, the ship has been in port since February 23, 2022. On August 18, the container ship Joseph Schulte reached the Bosphorus, informed TV channel NTV.

On August 10, the Ukrainian Navy announced temporary corridors in the Black Sea for merchant ships heading from or to the ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny. On August 12, the registration of merchant ships was opened, which are ready to pass on temporary routes.

Previously, the safety of ships leaving Ukrainian ports was guaranteed by a grain deal, which was concluded on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey and the UN, on the one hand, and representatives of Russia and Ukraine, on the other. On July 17, 2023, Russia withdrew from the “Black Sea Initiative”, citing the failure to fulfill part of the agreements relating to the Russian Federation. On July 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense declared all ships going to Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.