Ukraine seeks new rail export corridors as Black Sea disruptions persist

Ukrzaliznytsia is seeking new export routes for Ukrainian grain after Russian attacks on Black Sea ports severely limited shipments. The company’s CEO, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, told Bloomberg that Ukraine’s national railway operator is negotiating with neighboring countries to expand transit corridors.

According to Pertsovskyi, Ukrzaliznytsia is working to diversify export routes while hoping operations at Odesa’s ports will eventually recover.

“We are diversifying export routes. We believe the situation at Odesa’s ports will improve, but at the same time we are developing alternative corridors,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Some grain exports have already been redirected to the Danube ports, Romania’s Port of Constanța, as well as through Slovakia and Hungary.

However, Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotskyi, said that even when combined with the Danube route, rail transport can replace only about one-third of the capacity previously provided by the Black Sea ports.

According to him, with international support, the railway network can handle a maximum of 1 mln tons of grain per month. Meanwhile, the Danube corridor is also constrained by record-low water levels, which are disrupting navigation.

“The biggest problem is the shutdown of the Greater Odesa ports. There is no real alternative to them. First of all, security is needed. Ships are not calling because Russia is directly attacking them,” Vysotskyi said.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy warns that without restoring exports through Odesa’s ports, the country could run out of grain storage capacity as early as the beginning of November.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who expects the government to present a package of measures to diversify export routes later this week, warned that disruptions to Ukrainian grain supplies could trigger a new cost-of-living crisis across the Middle East and North Africa.