The Russian military’s decision to fire warning shots and board a freighter in the Black Sea this weekend has added a new level of uncertainty to the increasingly intense maritime theater of war, as Moscow, apparently for the first time, made good on its threat to treat Ukraine-bound civilian shipping as potentially hostile.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday announced the action, which was confirmed by Ukrainian officials, and video verified by The New York Times shows a military helicopter hovering above the cargo ship Sukru Okan. A group of people in military gear can be seen walking on the deck and climbing into the helicopter, while eight men in civilian clothes — apparently the ship’s crew — sit nearby.
It remains to be seen how the boarding of the ship might affect the flow of grain by sea from Ukraine, but some shipping industry analysts and executives said they did not think the episode would greatly affect a trade that had already been constricted by a virtual Russian blockade to a small fraction of its usual volume.
But it reflects the rising tensions on the Black Sea, which Western analysts have warned could escalate into violence involving countries not directly involved in the war. Russia’s warning last month about treating third-country shipping as hostile raised fears of armed clashes, and since then, Ukraine’s increasingly robust naval drone force has launched several attacks on Russian warships.
“We are, of course, concerned that Russia’s military may expand their targeting of Ukrainian grain facilities to include attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea,” a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said on Monday.
Since withdrawing last month from a deal that allowed ships carrying foodstuffs to leave Ukrainian ports, Russia has heavily bombarded those ports, notably Odesa, destroying more than 200,000 tons of grain, according to the government in Kyiv, and badly damaging the infrastructure needed for those exports to resume. Ukrainian officials claimed on Monday that air defenses had shot down all 15 attack drones and eight cruise missiles fired overnight at Odesa, but said that falling pieces caused damage, fires and injuries.
With Ukraine’s main ports shuttered, its shipping has been limited to exports on the Danube River through much smaller ports — which have also been attacked, but not as often — and aboard much smaller vessels.
The boarding of the Sukru Okan will contribute to concerns about the viability of that route, but on its own is unlikely to tip the balance in the thinking of shippers, said Andrey Sizov, the head of SovEcon, a Black Sea grain markets consultancy.
“It’s just another reminder there’s a war going on in that region,” Mr. Sizov said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, “We call on the international community to take decisive action to prevent the Russian Federation’s actions that impede the peaceful passage of vessels through the…
2023-08-14 17:30:11
Original from www.nytimes.com
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