Addressing the the 33rd Assembly of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) yesterday via video link, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky described the blows to freedom of navigation in the Black Sea over the past 21 months as the worst since the Second World War.
Zelensky called on member states to help protect the shipping corridor his government has created over the past three months to funnel grain exports out of the country despite the regular attacks by the Russian military.
Russia withdrew in July from a UN-brokered deal to allow grain ships through its blockade. Almost 6m tons of cargo have been transported in less than three months along the new route which hugs the coastlines of Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, according to Zelensky, who over the weekend at a Ukraine grain summit urged for greater aerial and naval aid to ensure merchant ships are safe.
With member states due to vote on Friday on which countries will be on the IMO Council, Zelensky used his address to throw cold water on Russia’s chances of gaining a seat at the UN body’s top table.
“Russia has no place in the International Maritime Organization, nor in its governing bodies, because no one in recent decades has caused greater harm to free navigation than Russia,” Zelensky said.
The IMO Assembly consists of all member states and meets every two years at IMO’s London headquarters to thrash out upcoming work programmes, budgets as well as electing the IMO Council.
In a further headache for Kyiv in getting its agricultural products to International markets, Polish and Slovak truckers have blocked much of Ukraine’s road-based cargo supply in recent days.
Splash will be bringing readers further developments from the London UN body later this week.
He’s not wrong, but if he thinks the fence-sitting members if the IMO will back Ukraine over Russia, he’s mistaken.