Russia blocks ships with Ukrainian grain: long queue in Bosporus

Since Russia delays inspections of ships entering and leaving Ukrainian seaports, the queue has already exceeded 170 ships. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Infrastructure.

The ministry said that Russia artificially delays the inspection of ships in the Bosporus, which led to a queue of more than 170 ships.

Read also: How Russia smuggles the stolen Ukrainian grain.

Earlier, on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly accused Russia of deliberately fomenting a food crisis and blocking the movement of ships carrying Ukrainian food as part of a “grain initiative.”

At the time, Zelenskyy put the figure at more than 150 ships queuing on the Bosporus. Due to Russian inhibition, Ukraine has under-exported about 3 million tons of food.

Currently, Ukrainian ports are forced to operate at only 25-30% of their capacity due to Russia’s blocking of ship inspections.

The Ministry also reported that on Monday six more ships left the ports of Greater Odesa with 227 thousand tons of agricultural products for Africa, Asia, and Europe. Among them is the bulk carrier MBC DAISY, which carries 14 thousand tons of wheat for the residents of Algeria.

Read also: How Russia convinces Africa that the cause of the grain crisis is the Western sanctions against it, not its aggressive actions against Ukraine.