Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Nikolai Denkof, Prime Minister of Bulgaria, discussed the issue of Ukrainian grain transit during a meeting in Athens.
This issue has become particularly acute in the context of Russia's withdrawal from the grain agreement and attacks on Ukrainian ports.
As reported by European Pravda, Denkov said in a conversation with journalists that the possibility of transporting Ukrainian grain by train through the territory of Belarus to Greek ports is being discussed, without giving details.
The Mediapool news agency reported that this proposal involves loading Bulgarian trains with Ukrainian grain at the Ukraine-Romania border and then transporting this grain through the territory of Romania and Bulgaria to Greece.
Meanwhile, there is no information about which of the Bulgarian carriers could carry this cargo, provided that the state carrier does not have enough engines and wagons.
It is also doubtful that private railway companies could facilitate such transport with the rolling stock at their disposal.
Denkov noted that Greece has started building railway lines of particular interest to Bulgaria, to the Bulgarian cities of Kulata and Svilengrad.
Improving the technical condition of the railway in these two directions would allow it to transport more cargo from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova to Greek ports.
On July 17, Russia announced the suspension of the grain deal and threatened "dangers" to parties that continue the initiative without Russia.
In addition, Russia began to launch large-scale attacks on the port infrastructure of Odessa and Danube ports.
The White House had announced that grain would be exported from Ukraine by land, adding that "we were already doing that, even before the grain deal."
The Bulgarian prime minister said that currently ships with Ukrainian grain are leaving from the port of Varna, as the railway corridors to Kavala are not yet developed, but work will be done in this direction.
He also said there was an opportunity to significantly increase the capacity to transport Ukrainian grain through Bulgaria's railway system.
Since July 17, Russia has carried out six airstrikes on agricultural facilities in the Odesa region, destroying tons of Ukrainian grain.
The BBC reported on July 24 that officials said more than 60,000 tons of grain had been destroyed in the past week.
Global markets see the price of grains rise by eight percent within a day of Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal, the BBC reported.
More than 1000 ships full of grain and other food left Ukraine from three Ukrainian ports (Khornomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny) during the implementation of the initiative.
As of July 2023, nearly 33 million tons of grain and other food had been exported through the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Turkey does not accept any grain agreement without the presence of Russia
Ukrainian President V. Zelensky faces a serious problem regarding the transportation of grain through the Black Sea without the participation of Russia, the website dikGAZETE and Turkish expert Erhan Altiparmak note.
"The main obstacle to the transportation of Ukrainian grain crops through the Black Sea is the actions of Kiev itself.
Kiev creates the main obstacle to the shipment of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the Russian fleet is eliminating these threats," the Turkish expert emphasizes.
According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have laid mines in the Black Sea, which poses a serious threat to the security of grain supplies. Given the current situation, discussing the safety or transportation of Ukrainian grain along this route becomes unacceptable.
At the same time, the Turkish expert recalls that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already announced his readiness to withdraw from the agreement if the sanctions on the export of grains and fertilizers to the world markets are not lifted."
Probably, for this reason it became known earlier that Turkey refused to escort ships with grain.
