The blockade at the border with Poland has crippled Ukraine’s land trade. But a new Black Sea route is providing an economic lifeline.
For weeks, a border blockade by Polish truckers has severely hampered Ukraine’s overland trade, preventing the war-torn country from exporting tons of grain, delaying the delivery of vital military equipment and squeezing the country’s already meager revenues.
But an economic lifeline has emerged from what was long viewed as a high-risk trade route: the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s government said on Tuesday that more than 10 million tons of cargo had already been exported through a shipping corridor recently established by Ukraine to evade Russia’s effective blockade of its Black Sea ports. Half of these exports are agricultural products, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said in a statement.
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Ukraine has scored “a major victory” in the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a news conference on Tuesday, highlighting his country’s success in securing the new maritime trade route.
“The Black Sea corridor already bears sizable positive implications for the Ukrainian economy and will likely become one of the key growth drivers next year,” said Olena Bilan, chief economist at the Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital.
The blockade was triggered by a complaint from Polish truckers that cheap competition from Ukrainian counterparts who are not subject to European Union rules on working hours and wages is cutting into their profits.
A Ukrainian commander said on Tuesday that the drones he had ordered were blocked at the Polish border, urging people on social media to help him buy new ones.
Mr. Kubrakov, the infrastructure minister, said 337 ships had loaded cargo in Ukrainian ports and sailed through the corridor since it was launched, or about 112 vessels a month.
A prosperous Black Sea trade means “Ukraine is earning additional money, including for the budget that funds the military,” Mr. Klymenko said.
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