Sea is not for war: Ukrainian ferries return to the Black Sea
10 April 2025 15:28
For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, ferry services have been launched from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk to the Georgian port of Batumi. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing a statement by Tymofiy Murakhovsky, Director of Commercial and Logistics at Ukrzaliznytsia, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The official made the statement at a meeting on “Restoration of the Ukraine-Georgia ferry service within the TTMM corridor.”
According to Tymofiy Murakhovskyi, the project is being implemented with the participation of the shipping company Ukrferry (Odesa) and UZ Cargo Poland (Warsaw), a subsidiary of Ukrzaliznytsia.
The official said that the first voyages in March were carried out in the mode of information silence and urged businesses to become more actively involved in the direction.
As you know, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression in February 2022, there has been no maritime traffic between Ukraine and Georgia. The shipping company Ukrferry announced the resumption of the Chornomorsk-Batumi ferry service on July 9, 2024, but this did not happen.
But ferries are returning to the Black Sea
A few days ago, it became known about the partial resumption of the Chornomorsk-Varna ferry service, which was stopped with the start of the full-scale invasion.
According to the Dumskaya newspaper, the Vilnius cargo ferry has already made several trips to the Bulgarian sea capital. This long-known route has now become part of the new Chornomorsk-Varna-Batumi ferry line, connecting Odesa region with Georgia.
After leaving Chornomorsk, the Vilnius stops in Varna for several hours and embarks on a two-day voyage to the Caucasus coast. Currently, cargo is being transported there, and the passenger cabins are used by truckers.
The publication reminds that the Chornomorsk-Varna ferry crossing was opened almost 47 years ago, on November 14, 1978. Today, the ferry terminal’s capacity allows it to transship up to 4.5 million tons of cargo in railcars, more than 400,000 trucks and 250,000 cars and other wheeled vehicles per year.
Ukraine is restoring important transportation corridors
The ferry service between Ukraine and Georgia is being restored as part of the TTCM corridor. This is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TCIR), an international transport corridor that runs through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and further to Europe. This route also develops the international project “The Belt and Road” or “One Belt, One Road,” which is the revival of the Great Silk Road in modern realities. And Ukraine, apparently, despite the difficult times, is resuming its activities on this route.
At a meeting of the Exporters’ Office on February 19, Tymofiy Murakhovskyi, Director of Commercial and Logistics at Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, announced that Ukraine’s participation in the TTC will be discussed during the visit of UZ management to Baku in early March. It was planned that the ferries “Heroes of Plevna” and “Heroes of Shipka” would transport container trains from Caspian ports to Baku, then from the Georgian port of Poti to Odesa, from where the cargo would go to Europe.
The reopening of the Chornomorsk-Varna crossing is evidence of the opening of another very important transportation corridor for our country. This is the opinion of Oleksiy Sukhyi, a columnist for Dumskaya.
“This route has existed for several decades, being the fastest transportation artery connecting our region with Asia. The resumption of work was supposed to take place last summer and was postponed several times, but the security situation did not allow the ferries to start running, and businesses did not want to work in these areas,” said Oleksiy Sukhyi, commenting on the launch of the Chornomorsk-Varna ferry service.
Today, he said, there are positive developments: business feels much better than last year, the Ukrainian sea corridor is operating without interruption, and container ships and rail ferries have returned to the ports of Greater Odesa.
