2023-08-27 18:00:17
Durant a year and a halfhe black seashared by six states, three of which are members of NATOhas been maintained relatively on the sidelines of the hostilities that took place in Ukrainian territory after the Russian invasion: incidents sporadic naval, bombing of port infrastructures, but little else. The withdrawal from russia of the’agreement of the grainwhich allowed Ukraine to export grain safely from its coastal ports, has damaged it certain tranquility. The last few weeks have multiplied naval incidents between Russian warships and cargo ships in international waters, while the voices grow to the Atlantic Alliance to intervene and prevent the naval blockade of the Kremlin convert the world hunger in a weapon of war and ends up destroying Ukraine’s agricultural sector, vital for its survival as a state.
“Many of the big ones” exported thanks to the current agreement until recently, “especially wheat” went “to developing countries”, he explained to EL PERIÓDICO Carlos Mera, Head of Commodity Markets Research at Rabobank. Until July of this year, the World Food Program (PAM), a UN agency that distributes food to long-term refugees and displaced people, received 80% of the wheat it used in its food programs from Ukraine. According to data from the defunct Black Sea Initiative, 65% of Ukrainian wheat used by the naval corridor was destined for “developing countries”. In 2021, before the war started, agriculture occupied about 11% of Ukrainian GDPa figure that has ostensibly reduced since the start of hostilities.
Growing evidence
Faced with the growing evidence that Russia intends to destroy the economy of the attacked country, and the certainty that the alternative routes for the exit of the grain – the danube riverper railway to Romania o by road– are much more onerous, both the Kyiv authorities and NATO itself have begun to elaborate alternative plans and strategies. In mid-August, the State Service of Maritime Navigation and Inland Navigation announced the establishment of a “temporary corridor” for civilian ships leaving the ports of Odessa, Txornomorsk i Pivdenni, the same ports included in the late Black Sea initiative. The aforementioned institution warned, at the same time, of the risks that existed for navigation in these conditions, in particular mines and the possibility of being intercepted by Russian warships. And only ship captains who agree to sail under “these conditions” would be authorized to set sail, says the broker’s announcement. To avoid giving justifications to the Russian side, By Txalikspokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, announced that they would install “cameras on all boats” in order to show that it is only a “humanitarian mission without any military purpose”. The first ship to use this new navigation route was the Joseph Schultea container ship of 94,000 tons Hong Kong-flagged, which arrived in Istanbul on August 18 after sailing through international waters no novelty
However, the increasing number of naval incidents involving the Russian Navy has raised the risk of a climb. In mid-August, Russian forces they opened fire against the cargo ship Heartacheof 2.155 tones, which was sailing to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, claiming that it had refused to stop for inspection. Russian soldiers boarded the ship from a helicopter and forced the crew on the bridge, at gunpoint, to kneel, staging a tense scene which was eventually resolved when it became clear that it was a civilian vessel.
“Piracy”
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The naval incident triggered alarm in NATO. The retired admiral James Stavridisformer commander of the allied forces in Europe between 2009 and 2013 qualified the aforementioned actions of “equivalent to piracy” and intended to undermine them trade relations of Ukraine with its partners, which could elicit a response from theAtlantic Alliance. “If Russia begins to approach ships oa sporuguir-them i threaten them, I think it is likely that NATO will respond by supporting a humanitarian corridor for navigation,” he predicted. NATO “could protect the ships with military aircraft or with naval escort“, it continued.
Whatever happens, a reality prevails with the passing of the days. Military activity in the waters and coasts of the Black Sea is on the rise, with constant shelling, attacks and skirmishes between Ukrainian and Russian forces, making these waters a “war zone as relevant to NATO as Western Ukraine”, he admitted to ‘The New York Times’ Ivo Daalderformer ambassador to NATO, head of the ‘think tank’ Chicago Council on Global Affairs. So, the NATO-Ukraine Council decided, the past July 26increase surveillance flights over the Black Sea with unmanned aircraft.
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