Access the latest Maritime Security Threat Advisory for the week commencing 25th September 2023.

👉 Ukraine has increased its reliance on an alternative shipping route, allowing it to rejuvenate grain exports, bypassing the effective Russian blockade on its Black Sea ports.

Last week, two ships navigated the new route with-out any disruptions. Additionally, three more cargo ships have entered Ukrainian waters recently, as confirmed by officials.


Since July, the attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea ports have limited its exports to the Danube River smaller ports, which have also been targeted recently. Ukraine also attempted grain exports to the European Union via road and rail after the intensified conflict, but this has faced challenges due to resistance from Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.

However, a breakthrough occurred last week when Kyiv tested a new maritime path. Two cargo ships,loaded with wheat, navigated along the Romanian coast and then crossed the maritime boundary back to Romania. Being a NATO member, ships in Romani-an waters are deemed less vulnerable to attacks.


Maritime traffic monitoring revealed that the second vessel carrying Ukrainian wheat reached Turkey via the Black Sea last Sunday.

Three additional cargo ships — the Azara, Ying Hao 01, and Eneida — have accessed this temporary route, as mentioned by Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, in a post on X. Kubrakov highlighted that these vessels were leveraging the corridor set up by the Ukrainian Navy and would transport 127 metric tons of Ukrainian farm products and iron ore to China, Egypt, and Spain.


The MarineTraffic website, using satellite data, located the Azara, Eneida, and Ying Hao 01 near Ukrainian ports south of Odesa over the past weekend. However, the exact positions of these ships were undisclosed on Sunday, indicating they might have turned off their transponders, possibly for safety reasons.