Greece and Bulgaria consider grain transit from Ukraine by railway
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, and Nikolai Denkov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria, have discussed the issue of transit of Ukrainian grain during a meeting in Athens. This issue has become especially acute against the backdrop of Russia leaving the grain deal and attacking Ukrainian ports.
Source: Bulgarian portal Mediapool, as reported by European Pravda
Denkov stated in a conversation with journalists that the possibility of transportation of Ukrainian grain by train through the territory of Belarus and to Greek ports is being discussed, but provided no details.
Mediapool reported that this proposal suggests loading Bulgarian trains with Ukrainian grain on the Ukraine-Romania border, and then transporting this grain through the territory of Romania and Bulgaria to Greece.
Meanwhile there is no information concerning which of the Bulgarian transporters could transport this cargo, provided that the state transporter does not have enough locomotives and wagons. It is also doubted that private railway companies would be able to facilitate such transportation with the rolling stock available to them.
Denkov remarked that Greece has begun to build railway lines that are of special interest for 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.
Background: On 17 July, Russia announced the suspension of the grain deal and threatened "risks" to the parties which will continue the initiative without Russia. Moreover, Russia started launching large-scale attacks on the port infrastructure of Odesa and Danube ports.
Earlier, the White House stated that further on, grain will most likely be exported from Ukraine by land, adding that "we were already doing this, even before the grain deal".
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