Context: The Sulina Channel holds immense importance for Ukraine’s grain trade as an alternative passage after Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal. This deal was used to provide safe passage for cargo ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

• The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, used to provide safe passage for cargo ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Odessa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi.

• Ukraine, often called the “breadbasket of Europe”, is among the world’s biggest grain exporters, with its economy heavily dependent on agricultural exports.

About Danube River

• Crossing through ten countries and draining some 817,000 km² and the territory of 18 countries, the Danube is the most international river in the world.

• Flowing from Germany’s Black Forest to the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine and the Black Sea, the Danube is Europe’s only major river which flows west to east, from Central to Eastern Europe. 

• The Danube is the longest river of the European Union and Europe's second-longest after the Volga.

• The European Commission now recognizes the Danube as the “single most important non-oceanic body of water in Europe” and a “future central axis for the European Union”. 

• Major tributaries of the Danube include the Tisza, Drava, Sava, Inn, and Prut rivers.

About Sulina Channel

• Of particular importance in this ‘new’ trade route is the Sulina Channel – a 63 km long distributary of the Danube, connecting major Ukrainian ports on the river to the Black Sea, lying completely within the borders of Romania, a NATO member.

• The Danube has historically been crucial for the movement of freight. 

• Near Tulcea, Romania, some 80 km from the sea, the river begins to spread out into its delta which has three major channels – Chilia, Sulina and St George.

• Of these, the Sulina Channel, which has been dredged and straightened, is the only one deep and wide enough for freight transport. This makes it a sort of a riverine ‘expressway’ – crucial for transport of goods from inland to the Black Sea.

• Ships carrying grain from Ukraine leave from Ukrainian ports such as Izmail and Reni on the mainstream (or the Chilia Channel), and head to the port of Sulina, at the mouth of the Sulina Channel.

• From there, they head around 140 km south to Constanta, Romania’s biggest seaport. 

• Here the cargo is transferred to bigger ships that carry it out of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus straits. 

• This route is under constant surveillance and protection of NATO.