There are many stories of resistance to the Russian invasion by the Ukrainians. Not only the soldiers at the front, but also the unknown heroes who continued to work in their place so that the State could continue to function. This is the case of the ports of Odesa , an essential artery for Ukrainian exports.

“Eighty percent of the country’s exports came out of the Ukrainian ports,” says Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yuriy Vaskov, the man responsible for ports and river and rail transport from the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion until May 2024. Then he followed the fate of the Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Together, Vaskov and Kubrakov founded the We Build Ukraine think tank in partnership with Boston Consulting Group , to define the strategic priorities of reconstruction and guide foreign investments in Ukraine.

“From the first day of the invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian ports were blocked by the Russian fleet,” Vaskov says, “and exporters looked for alternative routes, such as trucks and trains, but with profits close to ‘0’ due to non-competitive costs. On the other hand, the ports on the Danube, Izmail and Reni, increased their cargo movement 20-fold because they could cross the neutral waters of Romania.”

It was a partial solution, because the Danube seabed is not as deep as in seaports, so they can only work with flat-bottomed vessels with limited loads.

Then, in July 2022, there was the agreement to establish a grain corridor, known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative . Thanks to the diplomatic mediation of Turkey and the United Nations, the initiative lifted the Russian naval blockade of the ports of the Odesa region (though not in Mykolaiv) to allow the export of wheat and cereals. The 65 ships blocked for months in the ports were able to go out to sea again and exports resumed almost to the pre-war level.

It was then that the world became aware of the strategic value of Ukrainian agricultural exports, on which the food of 400 million people depends. That agreement lasted a year. But in the meantime, the losses inflicted on the Russian fleet due to attacks by Ukrainian maritime drones and missiles had cleared the sea of enemy ships. Since then, merchant ship traffic has resumed without having to negotiate with the Russians.

Among the officials who have remained in their posts, despite the personal risk, is Aleksey Myaskovsky, who for five years has headed the port authority that manages real estate and port services in Odesa. In the past three years, some of his employees have died because of attacks on the docks, but the workforce has remained in place, implementing safety regulations (shelters and working at a physical distance). As workers in critical infrastructure, 70% of the port employees are protected from military mobilization.

The Ukrainian economy depends on the seven ports in the region: three main ones around Odesa (the historic port, Chornomorsk and Yuzhny), three on the Danube (Izmail, Reni, Ust-Dunaysk) and one at the mouth of the Dnister (Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky). Despite the war, some of these ports have been privatized. Ust-Dunaysk and Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky were given in concession through a public tender to Ukrainian investors. But the Ukrainian government’s privatization policy does not stop. This year, two terminals in the port of Chornomorsk will be put up for grabs ( the procedure for one terminal is already online ) and as soon as the war is over, the cruise terminal in the historic port will be given in concession, where the burnt-out skeleton of the old Hotel Odessa, destroyed by missiles, stands tall.

According to Myaskovsky, the process of privatization of the maritime sector is now irreversible, due to Ukraine’s ambition to become a member of Europe. Law 4196-IX of February 2025 will transform all public companies into joint-stock companies – a process necessary to allocate more resources to ports. In the current system, the Ukrainian Port Authority ( USPA ) collects all the revenues for the services offered to shipping companies, but redistributes an infinitesimal part to maintain the infrastructure.

Merchant traffic today occurs thanks to the reduction of the risk of war and new insurance policies that shipping companies can buy.

“Security is the main problem of maritime traffic in the Black Sea,” says Arthur Nitsevych, founder of the law firm Interlegal , the largest in Ukraine for maritime law (50 lawyers), with offices in all the countries bordering the Black Sea, plus Greece and Cyprus.

From 2022 and almost all of 2023, no insurance policy for war risk available, Nitsevych explains. “Then, in November 2023, a London insurance company with a partial guarantee from the Ukrainian government offered a policy that initially cost 5% of the value of the cargo. Today it has dropped to 1-1.5%.”

However, the lawyer tells us, this insurance is voluntary, not mandatory. There are many ships owned by Turkey, Arab countries, and even Ukrainian owners, that accept the risk and sail without paying these expensive policies, to increase profits. They simply pay the policies required at an international level in each port, relating to the personnel and technical equipment of the ship.

According to him, the reconstruction of Ukraine will lead to a further increase in port traffic because in addition to agricultural and mineral commodities there will also be construction materials. This will be a challenge for the Ukrainian port administration, which suffers from inefficiencies due to regulations defined by officials in Kyiv who often do not fully understand the economics of the port.

Regarding the economy of Ukraine, Vaskov predicts that the Ukrainian GDP will increase by 2.5-3 times in 15 years. To achieve this, a stable peace in conditions of economic security will be needed. It will be necessary to reopen the port of Mykolaiv, where there is a terminal of the Chinese operator COFCO, and from which the steel products of the Indian giant Arcelor Mittal departed. It is useful to note that Mykolaiv is already the object of the majority of Danish investments in Ukraine . And then we need to relaunch river traffic on the Dnipro, with the reconstruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam destroyed by the Russians.

The great strategic perspective for Ukraine is to hook up to the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic-Corridor ( IMEC ) project, the logistics corridor launched by India to connect to Central Eastern Europe through the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Mediterranean. Odesa could take advantage of this corridor by offering its rail connections to Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, to reach the Baltic Sea more quickly. It is no coincidence that the Polish European Commissioner has publicly announced Poland’s interest in investing in the port of Odesa . And Vaskov himself confirms that there are already projects with European partners to create new railway lines with the distance between the tracks used in Europe (Ukrainian railways have a wider gauge), to improve connections with European markets.

Ukrainian ports will play a decisive role in the revival of the economy, but on the condition that the government defines the maritime strategy of Ukraine.

“The lack of a maritime strategy for Ukraine has always been its weak point,” complains Roman Morgenstern, Director of Marketing and International Projects at Ukrferry . “In Kyiv there has always been a lack of knowledge of the port activity and the will to increase the role of Ukraine on the seas.” In this regard, the case of the Black Sea Shipping Company, known as BLASCO , is emblematic. With its independence, Ukraine inherited the Soviet merchant fleet, which with its 400 ships was the largest in the world. Due to a lack of expertise and a lot of corruption, that economic heritage was completely lost, between ship sales and scrapping due to lack of maintenance.

And yet, Odesa through its Maritime University and Naval Academy still graduates many professionals both for careers in the merchant navy and for shipping and logistics companies. An important asset for the future of Ukraine, which will be exploited to the fullest only thanks to a real maritime strategy.