By blocking Ukrainian ports, Russia violates international shipping conventions, so Ukraine calls on the international community to intervene and restore free access to the sea for Ukrainian ships. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Vaskov on the air of the Aljazeera TV channel.
"We state that Ukraine has lost access to its ports due to the Russian invasion and cannot export its products by sea. This is a gross violation of the International Convention on International Maritime Navigation, and we appeal to the UN International Maritime Organization with a demand to restore the free legal proceedings of Ukraine in the Black Sea," Vaskov stressed.
He also said that now Ukraine and its international partners, the UN and Turkey, continue negotiations on extending the Grain Agreement. It is also proposed to approve the agreement term for at least a year, and not for 120 days, as it is now, because the world market needs an extended planning horizon.
As you know, earlier, the Vice Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine - Minister for the Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba appealed to the international community to influence Russia and unblock maritime merchant shipping for Ukraine. After all, Russia deliberately complicates the work of the "grain corridor", but its ships move freely by sea and are not inspected at all - which allows the aggressor to deliver military cargo by sea, among other things.
