Ships exporting Ukraine grain through the Black Sea will be protected by a 10 nautical mile buffer zone, according to long-awaited procedures agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations.
As Reuters report, the deal is overseen by a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul made up of Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian military officials and U.N. officials.
According to the procedures agreed, the JCC will provide information on the planned movement of ships through the maritime humanitarian corridor, which will be shared with Russia, Ukraine and Turkey’s military to prevent incidents.
Then as the vessel moves through the maritime humanitarian corridor it will be protected by a 10 nautical mile circle buffer zone around it.
The United Nations and Turkey made the agreement during July, after U.N. warnings that the halt in grain shipments was stoking severe food shortages around the world.
Since then a number of grain shipments, mainly onboard vessels that were stuck in Ukraine since Moscow’s invasion in February, have left in test voyages.
“The parties will not undertake any attacks against merchant vessels or other civilian vessels and port facilities engaged in this initiative,” the ‘procedures for merchant vessels’ document said.
The document also reads that“no military vessel, aircraft or UAVs (drones) will close to within 10 nautical miles of a merchant vessel transiting the Maritime Humanitarian Corridor, excluding territorial seas of Ukraine.”
The Joint Coordination Centre was established under theBlack Sea Grain Initiativein Istanbul on 27 July 2022. It comprises senior representatives from Russia, Türkiye, Ukraine and United Nations and its role is to enable the safe transportation, by merchant ships, of grain and other foodstuffs and fertilizers from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea to the rest of the world.
