Foreign shipping companies will be allowed to carry cargo up and down the Dnipro,

Foreign shipping companies will be allowed to carry cargo up and down the Dnipro, under legislation approved by the Rada recently with President Zelenskiy’s backing. The goal is to triple annual river cargo to 30 million tons by 2024. “We need to build 250-300 new vessels,” Artem Kovalev, the Rada member who authored the bill, told UNIAN. “It is unrealistic to do this in a short time…so we have agreed to allow vessels flying a foreign flag to operate in our inland waterways.” Rebuilding river locks is to be paid through a new Inland Waterways Fund. This will be funded in part by 3% of customs duties paid by foreign flag ships using Ukrainian ports and by 45% of rent payments paid by hydro dams.