As many as 70 ships accumulated outside Romania's Sulina Canal awaiting entry to Ukrainian river ports as insufficient pilot availability, weather closures, air raid alerts and preferential access for fuel cargoes reduced inbound traffic to two or three vessels per day, Reuters reported on Aug. 26. Ukraine shipped 539,000 tons of grain during Aug. 1-21, compared with 1.73 million tons a year earlier, despite an elevenfold monthly increase in rail deliveries to its Danube ports.