A year later, the Black Sea once again became a war zone after Russia closed the maritime corridor that guaranteed the safety of navigation and the transfer of ships with Ukrainian grain.
Ukraine had not had to worry about its coastline since July 22, 2022. Its back was well covered with the signing of the Istanbul Accords. Now, Russia once again has a free hand to pound the enemy coast as a prelude to a full-blown naval blockade. Nor has Moscow given up the idea of ??making Ukraine permanently landlocked after already turning the Azov into an inland sea.
Russia does not hide that one of the triggers for its decision to abandon the Black Sea Initiative on Monday, apart from the inability to export its fertilizers, have been the attacks perpetrated by Kiev against Crimea.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin was Monday’s explosion on the bridge linking the annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland, the second attack on that strategic infrastructure since the start of the war. In addition to the death of two civilians, the authorities had to suspend road traffic, a further demonstration that Moscow cannot guarantee the security of the territory that it annexed in 2014.
Moscow reacted angrily and heavily shelled terminals at major Ukrainian ports in the Odessa region, destroying cargoes of grain, including a 60,000-tonne cargo destined for China, among other Asian countries.
At first, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that all ships bound for the Ukrainian coast would be considered “potential” military targets and, in the event of carrying weapons, they would be seen as a party to the conflict. After the alarm reactions of the Western powers, shipping companies and insurers, Foreign Affairs qualified that Moscow will proceed to inspect these ships in search of dangerous goods.
Meanwhile, Ukraine wasted no time. Aware that Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deals was an open secret, she stepped up her sabotage operations in Crimea this week.
The peninsula has been attacked four times since Monday. The last time, this Saturday with a drone attack against an ammunition arsenal in central Crimea, the governor, Sergei Axiónov, reported on his Telegram channel.
The detonations forced the evacuation of the population within a radius of five kilometers and the interruption of rail traffic, which includes nine long-distance trains, some coming from Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
On Wednesday enemy drones also hit a military training ground and on Thursday another similar attack caused the death of a teenager and damage to administrative buildings.
For that reason, the tourism industry acknowledged this week that the holiday season in Crimea will be bad and that the number of visitors could be reduced by up to 30%. That is kyiv’s goal. Geographically and economically isolate the peninsula, so that the cost of annexation becomes increasingly expensive for Moscow.
“For this they have neither a fleet nor aviation (…) For this reason, their statements about a naval blockade are nothing more than the biggest bluff,” Vladimir Konstantinov, president of the Crimean Parliament, replied to the RIA Novosti agency.
The Crimean bridge is the symbol of the annexation, which will be ten years old in March of next year, coinciding with the elections in which Putin will stand for re-election, making it the main target of Kiev.
On Friday, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, assured that the bridge “is a hostile infrastructure”, built outside of International Law, which has become a crucial logistical link for the transport of ammunition for the Russian Army. “That is why it is our goal and any goal that brings war and not peace must be neutralized,” he stressed.
While Axionov today accused Zelensky of trying to take revenge on the Crimeans for joining the Russian Federation, federal deputies accused Zelensky of admitting responsibility for “state terrorism.”
The attacks in recent days have caused panic in the region. The authorities suspended car traffic on the bridge twice on Saturday for fear of new attacks.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
