Two inland cargo hubs to be constructed in western Ukraine to boost crop exports

In Volyn, the infrastructure for two "dry ports" is being built, which will serve to export agricultural crops of Ukrainian farmers abroad, Yuriy Yurchenko, the head of the regional department of agro-industrial development has announced, public broadcaster Suspilne writes.

"Construction work continues at one site, and reconstruction work continues at the other, on elevators located near railway tracks. This will make it possible to export grain not only by sea, but also by rail after they are put into operation," he said.

Agricultural products will be shipped primarily by rail. According to him, once these two "ports" are fully operational, Volyn be able to export more than 3 million tons of products per year, namely grain and industrial crops.

He emphasized that before Russia's full-scale invasion, approximately 110,000 tons of grain and technical crops were exported via the Volyn region. Last year, the regional indicator increased to 1.5 million tons of agricultural products.

"Today, direct deliveries are being made to the ports of the grain group. There are also technical crops that do not stay on the territory of the European Union, but go further," Yurchenko added.

In early May, Russia completely blocked all incoming grain carriers and threatened to withdraw from the grain initiative on May 18. Inspections later resumed, but on May 21 it emerged that Russia refused to unblock the largest port of the grain corridor – Pivdennyi.

On May 28, ships with Ukrainian grain began to leave Odesa after a long break.