A Major Turkish Shipping Company Has Suspended All Voyages To Russia
- 31.08.2026, 22:26
The ships that were headed for St. Petersburg turned back toward Turkey.
The Turkish shipping operator Akkon sent an urgent message to its partners announcing that it would completely cease calls at Russian ports, according to two of the company’s clients. Ships headed for St. Petersburg were turned back to Turkey. This information was confirmed by a Russian freight forwarding company that handles import and export cargo, according to The Moscow Times.
Akkon is a major carrier; many have used its services, especially after Russia’s Fesco stopped operating routes through the Black Sea in early August: Ukrainian maritime drones sank its container ship Yanina, which was sailing from India, near Novorossiysk, explains one of the business owners.
On August 10, Akkon announced that, due to the tense situation in the Black Sea, it was temporarily rerouting its voyages from Novorossiysk to St. Petersburg with a surcharge of $2,500 per container. Other carriers that continued to sail from Turkey to Novorossiysk charged an average of $1,000 per container for the risk, while the average rate for shipping a container from Turkish ports ranged from $500 to $1,500. But now the company is completely ceasing calls at Russian ports. On August 21, a drone attacked the Akkon Lines container ship; the vessel sustained damage and caught fire, forcing the crew to evacuate.
Following its latest assessment of the safety situation regarding voyages to Russia, the company concluded that further escalation poses heightened risks to the crew, the vessel, and the cargo, according to an Akkon statement. The cargo will be returned to the port of departure and/or unloaded at the ports of loading. “But our cargo from the container ship that was headed to St. Petersburg will be unloaded at the nearest port—apparently in Klaipėda,” — says the owner of the cargo shipped from Turkey to Russia on an Akkon voyage.
Another Turkish carrier, Arkas, has completely ceased operations with Russia, according to an employee of a freight forwarding company. Mustafa Jan, chairman of the board of directors of the Turkish shipping company Transbosphor Deniz Taşımacılığı, estimated Turkey’s losses from Ukrainian Armed Forces attacks on merchant ships in the Black Sea over the past three months at $20 billion.
MSC—one of the largest players in the global container market— announced on August 26 that it would stop calling at Novorossiysk following a drone attack on its container ship MSC Ulsan III and would reroute its voyages to St. Petersburg and “other ports.” The company’s fleet consists of about a thousand ships, and its routes span the globe. Several other carriers operating in Turkey have announced similar reroutings, according to two freight forwarding companies.
The shift to St. Petersburg is now familiar news, confirming the dire situation for shipping in the Black Sea, but it does not mean a halt in cargo traffic, says one logistics expert. However, Turkish container carriers’ refusal to work with Russia will impact shipments of goods from Europe, says an employee of a major freight forwarding company. “The Turkish route has come to a standstill, and St. Petersburg is now in question,” explains an importer of European furniture and home goods.