Romania plans to involve Air Force to speed up transit of ships with Ukrainian grain through Danube River

Romania is planning to expand one of the key routes for Ukrainian grain exports due to Russia's increased attacks in the Black Sea and growing risks to global food trade. In particular, they plan to involve aviation.

Source: Luminita Odobescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, in an interview with Bloomberg

Details: The country has already facilitated the transit of more than 20 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine, which is about half of the total 41 million tonnes sent through the so-called solidarity corridors since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

Romania can now open new checkpoints with Ukraine, increase staffing at existing checkpoints, and recruit retired military pilots to speed up the transit of ships through the Danube canals.

"We are in close contact with Ukraine to identify the best options to increase and speed up this transit. The security situation of course is not easy, but we are very much committed to continue to help Ukraine," Odobescu said.

Following Russia's disruption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Romanian port of Constanta, the largest Black Sea port in the EU, is currently the preferred option for Ukrainian companies due to proximity and costs.

However, since Romania itself is a major exporter of grain, the risk of overloading increases both in ports and on land routes. Kilometre-long queues of trucks are already standing at the existing checkpoints with Ukraine, and there are dozens of ships on the Danube River.

This caused discontent among local farmers, which led Romania and four other Eastern European countries to ban direct imports of Ukrainian grain.

Despite this, Romania has increased the capacity of the port of Constanta, modernised and reopened a closed railway link with Ukraine, and is working to recruit much-needed pilots to steer ships through the Sulina channel to reach Ukrainian ports on the river.

According to the Ministry of Transport of the country, the Sulina port even recorded record traffic – more than 470 ships in May.

As early as August, the number of pilots on the Danube in Romania will begin to gradually increase to around 60 from the current 40 as retired navy captains and pilots return. This will increase the canal's capacity by 50%, Gabriel Kovrig, the man in charge of piloting, told Bloomberg.

Bulgaria is also ready to significantly increase the transit of Ukrainian grain through its railway network if Greek ports have the capacity to process grain, the country's Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said.

Background:

• On 17 July, Russia announced the termination of the grain deal and threatened the parties that would continue the initiative without Russia with "risks". Moreover, Russia has started launching mass attacks on the port infrastructure of Odesa and Danube ports.

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