Moscow made good on its threats to enforce its blockade of Ukraine by firing warning shots in the Black Sea this weekend. This reflects the rising tension of the Black Sea, which Western analysts have warned could escalate into violence involving countries not directly involved in the war. State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, says they are “concerned that Russia may expand their targeting of grain facilities to include attacks against civilian ships in the Black sea as well.”
With Ukraine’s main ports destroyed, its shipping has been limited to exports on the Danube river. Most ships heading to or from Ukraine now generally avoid Ukrainian coastal waters, instead steaming through a branch of the Danube that hugs the Black Sea coastlines of Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey to avoid the Russian blockade. Some major shipping companies abandoned the Black Sea grain trade after Russia imposed its blockade on July 17 because the risk was too great, the rewards too small, or their ships too big for river traffic.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/world/europe/russia-freighter-black-sea.html