One of the first projects that Italy will present at the conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine, which is planned for the end of April in Rome, will be the creation of entry and exit terminals for the Ukrainian economy in the northeast of Italy, the Minister of Economic Development of Italy, Adolfo Urso, said at a round table the other day of the Italian Confederation of Trade Unions (Cisl Venezia) in Venice. InterFax reports.
"Essentially, the Black Sea is closed (to Ukraine) due to military operations. In this case (to unblock Ukrainian exports), there is no other option than to deliver goods to the Adriatic using the existing railways and highways," explained Adolfo Urso, quoted as saying Italian mass media.
The plan for unblocking Ukrainian exports, in particular metallurgical products, being developed by the Italian government, provides for the creation of an intermodal transport highway along the route of the International Transport Corridor No. 5 (Venice - Trieste/Koper - Ljubljana - Maribor - Budapest - Uzhhorod - Lviv - Kyiv).
For this purpose, the Italian government intends to create a logistics platform connecting Ukraine by land with the Quadrante Europa intermodal port in Verona and then with the seaports of northeastern Italy, particularly with Trieste and Venice.
"Thus, we will provide Kyiv with a new and safe access to the sea, given the difficulties in using Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea," the minister emphasized.
He expressed hope that the logistics corridor between the Quadrante Europa intermodal port in Verona and the Goronda logistics site in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine on the border with Slovakia will be ready by the time the conference in Rome begins at the end of April 2023.
"The corridor will already be active by this date (the beginning of the conference in Rome), Italy is the leader of the project, in which several countries participate," he said and specified that the project of the logistics corridor Italy-Ukraine will be presented on March 10 during the logistics fair in Verona.
Interport Quadrante Europa in Verona is the largest transport hub in Italy, located at the intersection of the Turin - Trieste and Modena - Innsbruck (Austria) highways, as well as the intersection of the Verona-Innsbruck and Milan-Venice railway lines.
Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea have been closed since March 2022 due to mine danger and a military threat from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. Currently, only the ports on the Danube continue to work in the country, as well as the ports OdesÑ–a, Yuzhny (Pivdenny) and Chornomorsk within the framework of the "grain initiative".
