Around 82 ships with 418 seafarers remain stuck around Ukrainian ports despite the opening of a U.N.-backed sea corridor to ship grains with efforts to get the mariners sailing still stuck, shipping industry officials said on Thursday.
The agreement reached in July, creating a protected sea transit corridor, was designed to alleviate global food shortages, with Ukraine's customers including some of the world's poorest countries.
However, the initiative only involved dry bulk ships around three Ukrainian ports with dozens of other vessels including oil tankers not able to access the corridor and awaiting approval to leave while waterways remain controlled by Russia and other ports are blocked by Ukraine.
