In the first half of January, only eight ships docked at Ukraine’s Sea of Azov ports – half the average of the same period 2016-2018

In the first half of January, only eight ships docked at Ukraine’s Sea of Azov ports – half the average of the same period 2016-2018, Andriy Klymenko, chairman of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs, tells Ukrinform. “There are now [shipping] companies that indicate on their sites that they are not sending their vessels to Libya, Iran and the Sea of ​​Azov,” he says, referring Mariupol and Berdyansk ports. He cites research by BlackSeaNews, that shows average waiting times for Ukraine-bound ships to traverse the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea quadrupled – from 28.4 hours in July to 124.2 hours in November.