Antonina Broyaka with Kansas State University says shipments through the Black Sea have dropped by 3 million metric tons annually since the conflict began. “The Ukrainian government of course put a lot of effort into protecting both the vessels and people. However, there is still some decline for Black Sea exports.
She says transportation routes are in disrepair. “Russia does a lot of missile strikes on different infrastructure and it leads to deterioration.”
Broyaka says Ukraine is facing a tight labor market and struggles to move goods by truck and rail. “We have a shortage of drivers. We can not supply so much anymore because older man are used in the military unfortunately.”
She says different rail gauges along the European border have impacted transportation speed and capacity. A rail gauge is the distance between two tracks making it difficult for railcars to move between Ukraine and other countries.
Broyaka made her comments on a recent K-State webinar.
