The stevedores of Ukraine’s largest seaport, Pivdennyi, including the TIS terminal group, have appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to help unblock the port’s operations.
“We are forced to ask you to pay attention to the unfortunate fact of systematic sabotage of the initiative for the safe transportation of grain and food from Ukrainian ports (the Black Sea Grain Initiative),” the appeal says. As the port workers reminded, since April 29, 2023, not a single vessel has been included in the inspection of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul and the relevant inspection teams. The aggressor side daily refuses to inspect ships sailing to the Pivdennyi seaport without explanation. Currently, only two of the three Ukrainian ports listed in the Black Sea Grain Initiative are de facto operational. Meanwhile, the largest cargo capacity is concentrated in the Pivdennyi seaport, which means that 50% of Ukrainian exports are effectively blocked. More than 1.5 million tons of grain and sunflower oil, which have been stored at the facilities of Pivdennyi port operators for two months for shipment to Africa and Asia, cannot be exported due to the above sabotage. At the same time, 26 vessels are waiting in line at Pivdennyi port, and the cost of the fleet’s forced downtime already exceeds $50 million. Thus, such sabotage automatically affects future contracts with traders – they are not being signed and will not be signed until the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s effectiveness is transparently understood.
“So, Ukraine is actually not fulfilling half of the commitments it made to the UN and Turkey regarding food supplies to world markets. Meanwhile, Russia exports its grain freely and without any inspections, effectively removing Ukraine from the economic map of food suppliers (grain, sunflower oil and meals) to world markets. The world is once again on the brink of famine due to the criminal actions of the Russian Federation,” the stevedores emphasized.
The port workers appealed to the President to immediately intervene in the situation. “We believe that this fact may not be obvious to our international partners, namely the United Nations and Turkey, which have also made commitments to 400 million people who depend on Ukrainian food, so we ask you to pay attention to the described unfortunate fact,” the appeal concludes.
The document was signed by 14 port operators of Pivdennyi port, including TIS LLC, TIS-Zerno LLC, TIS-Minidobryva LLC, M.V. Cargo LLC, SE World TIS-Pivdenny LLC, TIS-Ruda LLC, TIS-Ugol LLC, TIS-24 Berth LLC, Odesa Port Plant JSC, Terminal Borivazh LLC, Delta Wilmar Ukraine LLC, Stevedoring & K LLC, Allseeds Black Sea LLC, and Oil Export Terminal LLC. The full text of the appeal is available here.
