Marc Santora reports:

As families strolled along a promenade in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa recently, a lone cargo ship sailed in the distance. Suddenly, a drone dropped out of the clear blue sky and slammed into the vessel, sending smoke billowing across the horizon.

The attack, which I witnessed in late July, was part of a Russian campaign targeting cargo vessels that has halted nearly all shipping in and out of Odesa, Ukraine’s most crucial link to the world economy.

Coming at the start of the harvest season, the Russian campaign in Ukraine, which is a major producer of grains like wheat, corn and barley, could throw global food supply chains into turmoil. In 2022, during the first months of the full-scale war, Russia established a blockade of Ukrainian ports, causing a spike in global food prices and placing an estimated 70 million people at increased risk of acute food insecurity.

“Russia is hunting these vessels,” Dmytro Barinov, president of the Ukrainian Ports Association, said in an interview. “It’s a professional hunting for civilian vessels.”

The Russian strikes are the latest chapter in a long-running battle over the Black Sea and the adjacent Sea of Azov. New weapons that allow for precision targeting at great distances have made slow-moving cargo vessels easy targets. In June and July, Russian forces attacked at least 50 cargo ships, according to Ukrainian officials, killing more than 30 civilians.

Ukraine has also systematically targeted Russian-linked tankers and cargo vessels. Moscow’s maritime campaign appears to be a response to Ukraine’s decimation of the Russian fleet of river-sea oil tankers in the Sea of Azov and to Kyiv’s continued targeting of ships transporting Russian goods, which has left occupied Crimea isolated and starved for fuel. [Continue reading…]