Zelenskyy Offers to Help Break Hormuz Blockade

(MENAFN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Kyiv stands ready to assist in unblocking the Strait of Hormuz, which has faced severe disruption since the US and Israel launched their joint offensive against Iran — though he noted no formal request has yet been received.

“Our signal to the United States and countries in the Middle East about the Strait of Hormuz was that we were open to discussing it,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

The Ukrainian leader drew a direct comparison to Kyiv’s handling of the Black Sea grain corridor — a wartime initiative that restored global grain shipments out of the port city of Odesa amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict — framing it as a potential blueprint for Hormuz.

“The war and the negotiations on reopening the Hormuz Strait can go in parallel. It’s worth trying to find a diplomatic solution, and this could be beneficial for both sides in the war,” he said.

Zelenskyy also outlined a unilateral fallback option should diplomacy stall. “An alternative step would be to control the Strait unilaterally, as Ukraine did with the Grain Corridor. Achieving this would require interceptors, military convoys to escort the vessels, a large integrated electronic warfare network, and other tools,” he added, while emphasizing that only coordinated multilateral action would yield lasting results.

The Strait of Hormuz has been caught in the crossfire of a rapidly deteriorating regional crisis. US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, which began February 28, have killed more than 1,340 people — among them then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Tehran has since retaliated with drone and missile barrages against Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf states hosting US military assets, inflicting casualties, damaging infrastructure, and sending shockwaves through global energy markets.

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