A surge in attacks on ships, ports and export terminals in the Black Sea is disrupting global supplies of grain and oil, turning the region into the latest strategic trade chokepoint to be hit by escalating conflict.
The Black Sea is a vital route for shipments of grain, crude oil and refined products. Its waters are shared by Russia and Ukraine as well as Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Turkey.
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine, also a major agricultural exporter, have intensified attacks on each other’s agricultural export facilities and commercial vessels in the Black Sea area in recent weeks. Kyiv has also ramped up attacks on tankers involved in Russia’s oil trade.
The latest escalation is creating another pressure point for commodity markets already coping with disruptions to major shipping routes in the Middle East.
“The consequences … are already visible in global agricultural markets,” U.N. official Kayoko Gotoh told a Security Council session last week. “We must not allow this dangerous escalatory spiral to continue.”
