The Impact of The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict on The Maritime Traffic of The Turkish Straits

Abstract

Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, significantly influences global supply chain activities. The main objective of this research is to determine the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on maritime traffic through the Straits of Çanakkale and İstanbul. The primary headings addressed in the research were the total number of vessels passed, total gross tonnage and vessels passed based on ship type. Before the commencement of the special military operation (May 2021-February 2022) and after the special military operation (February 2022-December 2022), 20 months of maritime traffic data were used in the research. The data was obtained from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure's Turkish Straits Ship Passage Statistics website. The data set included information on the number of ships passing through the straits, with 17 distinct ship types for the İstanbul and 18 different ship types for the Çanakkale Strait.