Ports on the Danube receive 12 ships per day due to the dredging of the Bystre estuary

After the restoration of the passport depths on the Ukrainian section of the Danube River and the announced draft of 6.5 meters, the Danube ports reached a record number of 12 vessel calls and 90,000 tons per day.

“Elimination of natural silting and maintenance of passport depths of the estuary is something that happened annually before the war and is necessary for the further development of shipping in the Danube region,” the Ministry of Infrastructure noted.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Dmytro Barinov, said this at a meeting of experts of the Danube Commission (DC) on hydraulic engineering. Barinov also emphasized that in the conditions of the russians’ inhibition of vessel inspections within the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the threat of russia’s unilateral refusal to implement the agreement, the Danube region remains the only stable way for the export of agricultural products from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side also informed the participants of the meeting about operational dredging in the ports of the Danube region in order to restore passport characteristics. This is stipulated by the Convention on the Regime of Navigation on the Danube, which obliges the Danube states to maintain their sections in navigable condition for river vessels and, in the corresponding sections, for sea vessels. It also obliges to perform the necessary work to ensure and improve shipping conditions.