Ukraine and a pool of British insurance companies have set up a mechanism that will make the temporary Black Sea corridor more accessible to exporters.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced this at a government meeting on 14 November, the CFTS portal reports.
Shmyhal spoke about the cooperation with key global institutions to provide insurance guarantees to attract investment and facilitate the conduct of business in Ukraine. In this context, he said that freedom of navigation in the Black Sea is of strategic importance.
Shmyhal thanked the Ukrainian military for ensuring the operation of the Black Sea shipping corridor. "As a result of the agreements between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Ukraine and a pool of British insurance companies have created a special mechanism. It will allow exporters of all products from Ukraine to receive a discount on the cost of insurance against war-related risks. This will make the Black Sea corridor more accessible to a wider range of exporters," Shmyhal said.
The Ukrainian prime minister emphasized that the Cabinet of Ministers has allocated funds to cover possible war-related risks for shipowners. The mechanism involves the Export Credit Agency, Ukrgasbank, Ukreximbank, and a pool of 14 insurance companies.
As the CFTS portal reported earlier, the fund for insurance of civilian ships, which was created to encourage shipowners to send ships to Ukrainian Black Sea ports in the face of Russian aggression, was reduced during the drafting of the Ukrainian state budget for 2024. The total amount of compensation was initially expected to be up to UAH 20 billion, but only UAH 2 billion was budgeted for 2024 under the relevant article of the draft state budget (at least in its first reading).
