Zelenskyy answered to the petition of the mariners. Will there be any result?

On Friday, September 2, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, responded to the mariners‘ petition on allowing sailors to cross the border of Ukraine.

The petition “On granting a special status to the citizens of Ukraine who are maritime transport workers (sailors), including inland water sailors, for crossing the state border of Ukraine (departure from Ukraine) during the period of general mobilization” was published on May 18. In August, it already received the necessary number of votes – 25 thousand – to be considered by the president.

Yesterday, on September 2, Zelenskyy’s response appeared on the petition website. Commenting on the sailors’ appeal, the president noted that “the protection of the Motherland, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine is the duty of the citizens of Ukraine,” and there cannot be any privileges in this matter.

Zelenskyy reminded that a state of war has been introduced in Ukraine, under which some constitutional rights and freedoms may be restricted. However, he sent an appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal “with a request to comprehensively work out the issue raised in the electronic petition and to inform its author about the results.”

According to the joint report of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Baltic International Maritime Council (BIMCO), last year Ukraine ranked 6th in the world in terms of the number of working seafarers. It was about 76,400 Ukrainians in the crews of 74,000 vessels of the world merchant fleet. Ukrainians made up 4% of the total number of sailors (almost 1.9 million).

The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, named a slightly different figure – 100,000 people.

Such a number of sailors provides Ukraine with considerable income. 

LIGABusinessInform published statistics of the “Pivdenny” bank, which specializes in servicing mariners. The bank serves more than 27,000 mariners which is about 22%-25% of the market. According to the bank, before the war, one sailor earned an average of $3,800 per month.

So, if we multiply this number by the number of sailors who sailed last year, we get $4 billion that came to Ukraine.

At the end of 2021, the USM investigated the labor market and seafarer wages. After all, they are still among the most highly paid specialists from Ukraine on the global labor market. USM reviewed job vacancies from more than 800 employers posted between October 1 and November 4, 2021. Read the details in the material:Salaries of seamen: how much the Ukrainians are paid in the merchant fleet

An average Ukrainian sailor received $25,000–30,000 of income. This is 4-5 times more than the average income in the country (about $500 per month). The income of a senior officer (captain, assistant captains, chief engineer) is $40,000–60,000 per year. And, according to LIGABusinessInform, there are about a quarter of such among Ukrainian sailors. According to a report by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Ukrainian sailors have the second largest number of officers on the European labor market, after Filipinos.

According to “Pivdenny” calculations, the volume of unreceived foreign currency income due to restrictions on the departure of sailors is more than $2 billion.

At the same time, the war dictates to the economy new, more strict rules of the game, which should not be neglected. “According to the  research made  by analysts, there should be 12 people working in the economy per one soldier, and every $1 billion of income to Ukraine is very important for the financial stability of the state,” LIGABusinessInform writes.

It should be noted that the state’s policy regarding sailors is currently changing: on August 27, the Cabinet of Ministers allowed certain categories of sailors to cross the border. One of the conditions for departure is the permission from the Military Commissariat. Details and a list of documents required for departure can be found here: “How can a mariner go abroad: an instruction from the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine”.