Donetsk, Mar 28 — DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic authorities are working on launching passenger transportation from the Mariupol seaport, DPR Acting Head Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday.
“My task is to find the opportunity to organize comfortable and much needed passenger transportation, ” Pushilin said on Solovyov.Live Channel. “There are partners who can help arrange this work. The destinations are Crimea, Sochi and Krasnodar Territory. I believe that the route to Rostov-on-Don will be popular, too.”
Full-fledged operation of the seaport will reduce the workload on the land checkpoints on the administrative boundary with the Rostov region where border-crossing queues are observed. The port is also important for shipping grain, he added.
The Rostov region government told the Donetsk News Agency that after the launching of “Meteor” vessels from Rostov-on-Don, their route might run via Mariupol. The region plans to purchase “Meteors” in 2025. In March, the Rosmorrechflot Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said it was ready to include Mariupol and Berdyansk in the logistic chains but that it was premature to consider the development of passenger transportation.
The Mariupol port resumed operation in late May 2022 as it dispatched the first vessel with a load of metal products to the Rostov region. The seaport is expected to become the key transit point for cargoes needed for rebuilding the region. It will also be used for exporting DPR products. Last summer, a ferry link with Yeisk was launched.
Earlier reports said that the Mariupol seaport had been included in the register of Russian ports.*jk