MThe Black Sea Grains Agreement, which allows Ukraine to export wheat, corn and soybeans by sea, expires in March. Kiev would like to extend the contract with Russia and Turkey, which is important for its foreign exchange earnings and the world grain price, by one year. It is unclear whether this will succeed. Against this background, a dispute with Romania over expanding Ukrainian grain exports via the Danube Delta is all the more surprising. In any case, Bucharest is outraged by Ukraine, and nature conservationists are concerned about the UNESCO World Heritage Site. And as always, business interests are affected.
The heart of the dispute, which is widely discussed in the local media, is the Bystroe Canal, which is only 9 kilometers long. It connects the northern part of the Danube Delta, the Kilija arm marking the Ukrainian-Romanian border, with the Black Sea. Ukraine has now dredged it up. The passage has been deepened for ships from 3.9 to 6.5 meters, the Ministry of Infrastructure tweeted. “It is a great opportunity to increase the capacity of the Danube and the export turnover of the ports.”
In Romania, everyone was flabbergasted. After all, the Ukrainian embassy only reported “routine work”. The ambassador was summoned, and Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă demanded that Romanian experts make up their own minds on site. The Foreign Ministry referred to international protection agreements. A unique nature reserve is endangered.
330 bird species
The Danube Delta is the second largest wetland in Europe. Reeds thrive on 73,200 hectares, there isn’t that much anywhere else in the world. The reserve provides a unique habitat for 330 species of birds, five dozen species of fish and many other species of animals.
The ecological consequences of large-scale dredging would “probably destroy the natural dynamics of sediment transport and water runoff in the Danube Delta, which are responsible for the formation and maintenance of habitats for many endangered species such as the Danube sturgeon,” warns the environmental organization WWF. A massive deepening of the canal “in the heart of Ukraine’s Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve would endanger an ecologically sensitive area protected by several international agreements,” says WWF expert Irene Lucius.
In Kiev, people are amazed at the excitement: the Romanian side was informed “about operational dredging work” in autumn 2022 without receiving any comment, Deputy Minister for Reconstruction Yuri Vaskov told the Reuters news agency.
Since 2004, the Ukrainian government has been working to allow ships with a draft of 7 meters or more to pass through the Kilija and Bystroe arms of the delta. In July 2022, according to the WWF, the “Danube-Black Sea deep-water canal” project was included in the first version of Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction strategy.
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