A Turkish-mediated, United Nations-backed deal to ensure the safety of commercial ships in the Black Sea war zone was reportedly scuttled at the last minute.
The agreement to ensure “free and safe navigation of merchant vessels” in the region was scheduled to be announced by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 30 March, Reuters reported, citing several sources familiar with the matter.
It would have involved security guarantees for commercial ships, with Russia and Ukraine “committing not to strike or to seize or search them as long as they were either empty or had declared a non-military cargo”, according to the text seen by Reuters.
The government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had indicated that it had nothing against Erdogan announcing such a deal, even though it never intended to formally sign it.
Late last month, at the “very last minute”, however, Ukraine pulled out and the deal was abandoned, one of the sources told Reuters.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was quoted by Reuters as saying his organisation hoped freedom of navigation in the Black Sea would eventually prevail.
At the moment, it seems any agreement of the kind reported by Reuters would merely formalise the existing situation.
Despite the ravaging land war between them, Russia and Ukraine currently do nothing to directly attack maritime traffic in the region — with the exception of Russia bombing Ukrainian ports and Ukraine attacking Russian warships or vessels it suspects of carrying military cargo.
As TradeWinds reported, more than 1,000 ships have called at Ukraine’s previously blocked Odesa ports since August 2023, when Kyiv set up an independent maritime corridor to replace a previous UN-backed scheme that Russia had withdrawn from the month before.
It is understood that diplomatic talks have been going on over the past few months to provide formal safeguards for that situation.
Floating mines are currently believed to be the biggest risk for shipping in the region.
