The freighter, operated by a Hamburg shipping company, has been stuck in the Ukraine since the beginning of the war – now it has left the port of Odessa. A risky crossing given Russia’s threats to attack civilian ships as well.
The container ship Joseph Schulte, part-owned by Hamburg-based shipping company Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), has left the Ukrainian city of Odessa – despite Russia’s threats to consider ships leaving the port as potential targets.
The freighter had been in the port of Odessa since the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, as the BSM announced. Now the ship, which also partly belongs to a Chinese bank, is to head for Istanbul.
The Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, also confirmed that the 300-meter-long freighter was leaving the port. According to him, the ship transports more than 2,100 containers with about 30,000 tons of cargo and is the first to leave the port of Odessa since July 16.
According to the BSM, the “Joseph Schulte” will cross the waters of Ukraine, Romania and Turkey on her voyage. The company thanked all parties involved who made the freighter’s safe passage possible.
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.