Seven ships have already left Odesa ports through new corridor despite Russia's threats

Seven ships have already left Odesa ports through the temporary humanitarian corridor, and two have entered, Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said at a briefing.

"These are 7 out of 7 successful cases. 2 in, 7 out. The five vessels are those that were here before the full-scale invasion began. Accordingly, this process is ongoing. We are doing everything to ensure the safety of the area where the vessels are in our territorial waters," said Pletenchuk.

Then the vessels reach the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey up to the Bosphorus Bay.

"This is already the territorial sea of NATO countries. And accordingly, the task of fire damage on this territory is the task of fire damage on the sovereign territory of these countries. Therefore, they (the Russians – ed.) don't dare to do such a thing," Pletenchuk noted.

The Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces emphasized that the danger in the Black Sea today is due to aviation and missile weapons. At the same time, the enemy no longer brings ship groups to the water area, because it is afraid of their destruction.

"They keep them away, somewhere beyond the shores of Crimea, closer to their base in Novorossiysk. That's why missiles, Shaheds, and aviation continue to work. This is the direction we will still have to block. And of course, we hope for new types of weapons, such as the F-16, for example," added Pletenchuk.

In August 2023, Ukraine opened a new sea route from Odesa, which was initially used to evacuate civilian vessels stuck in the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

On September 17, it emerged that the new transport corridor to the ports of Ukraine began to work not only for the exit, but also for the entrance.