FRTU chairman says ships blockage in the sea corridor should be stopped immediately as it is vital for the economy

The blocking of ships in the sea corridor was caused by the actions of Ukrainian officials, which is why the country loses about 500 million hryvnias every day. Free movement through the corridor is vital for the economy, so it is necessary to immediately unblock its work and ensure freedom of navigation. This was stated by Volodymyr Husak, General-Director of the Ukrainian Federation of Transport Employers (FRTU).

"This can be called direct sabotage by certain officials of the Ukrainian government. As far as we know, the military has not issued any warnings regarding the movement through the temporary sea corridor, so we simply do not understand how this could be done. Every day of downtime, every day that this corridor is not working, can cost Ukraine up to half a billion hryvnias in lost revenue. This also leads to job losses. Therefore, we hope that these, frankly, incomprehensible decisions of certain officials will be canceled as soon as possible and that the movement along the Ukrainian sea corridor will resume as soon as possible. This is vital for Ukraine's economy," Husak emphasized.

According to him, the blocking of ships in the corridor also leads to the worsening of public image as Ukraine has made significant efforts to open it and ensure its stable operation. This, in particular, allowed for a slight reduction in insurance rates for ships, which were initially very high.

"The opening of this corridor was a great achievement of the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Therefore, we do not understand how anyone from the Ukrainian side can create obstacles! We hope that the traffic will be resumed as soon as possible and all the necessary decisions will be made for this," Husak summarized.

As reported earlier, ship traffic through the sea corridor opened by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the military was blocked. This was stated by the Ukrainian Grain Association: they clarified that the corridor was unreasonably blocked by officials and called on the government to intervene immediately as Ukraine suffers millions in losses literally every hour.