Authorities of Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) plan that the port of Mariupol will be fully operational by 2023, DPR Prime Minister Vitaly Hotsenko said on his official Telegram channel.
“We expect that our port will be fully operational and start gaining momentum by 2023,” he said.
According to the official, “the port is gradually getting on track”: on 20 September 2022, it welcomed the first barge with construction materials from Russia. The port earlier handled a freight and passenger ferry. Mariupol-Yeisk-Mariupol can become the first passenger route.
Commercial port of Mariupol was set up on 9 June 1808 by the order of Russian Emperor Aleksandr I. The port’s water area includes the inner and outer harbours, access canals to Coal Harbour and Azovstal. The port can accommodate ships of up to 240 meters in length. The depth of the port’s water area and the access canal to Coal Harbour is 9.75 and 9.15 m accordingly.
In 2021, the port of Mariupol handled 6.87 million tonnes.
The port is under DPR control from April 2022.