Stuck since the start of the war
Freighter “Joseph Schulte” reaches Istanbul
08/18/2023 06:39 am
A freighter belonging to the Hamburg shipping company Schulte Group leaves the port of Odessa via corridors for merchant ships. The ship had been stranded in Ukraine for more than 18 months.
The freighter “Joseph Schulte”, the first ship to leave the port of Odessa in Ukraine since mid-July, has reached Istanbul. The Hong Kong-flagged ship was just outside the port of the Turkish metropolis on Thursday evening, according to ship traffic tracking websites. The “Joseph Schulte” had been stuck in the Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
The freighter had left the Black Sea port in Odessa on Wednesday morning via one of the corridors for merchant ships. Ukraine set this up after Russia withdrew from the grain agreement in July. The agreement allowed Ukraine to transport grain across the Black Sea despite the war.
Ukraine’s Transport Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the corridors would be used “primarily” to allow ships to exit that were already in Ukrainian ports at the start of Russia’s war of aggression in February 2022.
Regular crew remained on board the freighter
According to the Hamburg shipping company Schulte Group, the freighter “Joseph Schulte” has been in the port of Odessa since February 23, 2022. A day later, Russia began its attack on Ukraine. Because of the war, it was not possible to move the ship, said a spokesman for the shipping company. A regular crew remained on board the freighter.
A few days before the “Joseph Schulte” left port, Russian soldiers fired warning shots at a Palau-flagged freighter that was en route to the Ukrainian port of Izmail with a Turkish crew on board. Russia had previously threatened to classify ships entering or leaving Ukrainian ports as potential military transport.
Turkey commented on Thursday for the first time about the warning shots on the ship, which is owned by a Turkish shipping company. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office said Ankara had “warned” Moscow after the incident against further actions that could further aggravate the situation in the Black Sea.
Focus on Danube ports
Since withdrawing from the grain agreement, Moscow has increasingly attacked the Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Black Sea and the Danube. The Danube ports on the border with Romania have become an important transhipment point for Ukrainian grain exports.
According to a report in the US newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, there are talks between the USA, Turkey and Ukraine and their neighboring countries about expanding transport on the Danube route. Washington is examining “all options,” including military support for Ukrainian ships, the paper reported.
The Turkish Defense Ministry declined to confirm these reports on Thursday. “Our efforts are focused on bringing the grain agreement back into force,” a ministry official told Turkish television broadcaster NTV. “We are not working on any other solutions,” he emphasized. Turkey is trying to remain neutral in the Ukraine war. On the one hand, Ankara supplied arms to Ukraine, but on the other hand, it does not support Western sanctions against Russia.