The freighter, operated by a Hamburg owner, has been stuck in the port of Odessa since the beginning of the war – now it has left Ukrainian waters. A risky voyage given Russia’s threats to attack civilian ships as well.
Several hours after leaving the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa, the German cargo ship “Joseph Schulte” successfully crossed the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea. “I can confirm that the ship left Ukrainian waters,” said a spokeswoman for Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) in Hamburg. According to the ship information service Marine Traffic, the freighter was sailing in Romanian waters not far from the town of Sfântu Gheorghe at the time.
Freighter has been in Odessa since the beginning of the invasion
The container ship, part-owned by Hamburg shipowner Bernhard Schulte, had previously left the Ukrainian city of Odessa – despite Russia’s threats to consider ships leaving the port as potential targets.
The Hong Kong-flagged freighter had been in the port of Odessa since the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, according to the BSM, which oversees the ship. The company thanked all parties involved who made the freighter’s safe passage possible. Now the ship, which also partly belongs to a Chinese bank, is to head for Istanbul.
It is transporting more than 2,100 containers with about 30,000 tons of general cargo, according to Ukrainian data, and is the first to leave the port of Odessa since July 16.
Ukraine wants to allow ships passage abroad
Last week Ukraine announced plans to create a “humanitarian corridor” to allow ships stranded in the port of Odessa to cross the Black Sea to foreign countries. However, crossing this corridor is at your own risk. According to the Ukrainian government, grain is also to be transported via the corridor.
However, Russia had threatened to consider such ships as potential targets after the Kremlin let the grain deal negotiated with the participation of the UN and Turkey in the summer of 2022 expire in mid-July. The agreement had enabled Ukrainian grain to be exported across the Black Sea.
Ukraine reports attacks on Danube ports
Since the agreement expired, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s agricultural and port infrastructure. The important ports of Ukraine at the mouth of the Danube were also the target of Russian attacks on Wednesday night, according to the administration of the Odessa region. However, specific locations were not named. Warehouses and grain silos were damaged by the attacks with combat drones and some caught fire. The fires have since been extinguished. There were no dead or injured.
The Ukrainian air force also reported attacks: During the night, 13 Iranian-made combat drones were shot down over the Odessa and Mykolaiv regions.
Most of the Danube Delta belongs to EU and NATO member Romania, but part also belongs to Ukraine. At the beginning of August, Ukraine had already reported attacks on the port cities there, most of which were said to have been aimed at the port of Izmail.