Ukraine stated that any ships heading to Russian ports might be military targets, a tit-for-tat response to a threat from Moscow that escalates the war’s risk to global food markets.
Ukraine has previously attacked Russian ships in the Black Sea, sinking the flagship Moskva cruiser with a Neptune anti-ship missile shortly after Russia’s invasion. It also sank a landing ship and damaged another in the port of Berdyansk in March of 2022, and Ukrainian rockets have reached Russia’s main supply line to Crimea, the Kerch Strait bridge.
The Black Sea is also home to a central Russian oil terminal that can be threatened by Ukrainian strikes, with more than half a million barrels a day of crude flowing through Novorossiysk, a key port for fertilizer, grain, and coal.
Lacking a deployable navy, Kyiv has been using surface water drones in attacks on Russian naval vessels, most of which have been thwarted by cannon fire. Only naval escorts would be able to provide similar defensive actions for Russian merchant ships.