The latest events confirm that, within the framework of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the battlefront is only part of the war and that it extends to places not affected so far, with consequences that can be very serious.
Russia, since last week unilaterally suspended the agreement with Ukraine brokered by Turkey and the UN for the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, has been attacking the main Ukrainian ports. Now he has taken a step further. Yesterday morning it destroyed grain silos in the Rhine river port on the Danube. In parallel, and during the same hours of the day, two non-residential buildings were attacked in Moscow by Ukrainian drones. Wreckage from one of those drones was found two kilometers from the Russian Defense Ministry, which claimed both were shot down and crashed. The mayor, Serguei Sobianin, clarified that there was "no serious damage or casualties" in the two buildings affected, but it was not clear if the drones damaged the buildings when they were shot down or if they were heading for them. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced "severe reprisals".
At the same time, Ukrainian drones were attacking Crimea. Fourteen were shot down, according to Russia, but one hit an arsenal.
The waves of Ukrainian drones come after nearly a week of continuous Russian bombardment of the port of Odessa, where missiles killed one person, injured dozens and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral on Saturday night.
But the Russian attack on the Rhine port constitutes a complete turn. Kyiv has had to return to intensive use of the Danube route, which takes bulk cargo ships through the Romanian Sulina Canal to the Black Sea and from there to the also Romanian port of Constanța. In the first months of the war (long before the July 2022 agreement), Russia bombed the southern railway connection in the Odessa region intended to load ships, but this is the first time it has directly attacked Ukrainian silos in the southern tip of the country and across the border from NATO member Romania. The intention is clear: to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain.
The Sulina navigable canal, opened at the time of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, has an infamous memory for the political prisoners who worked on its construction and for its ecological impact on the Danube Delta (which is a biosphere reserve), but today it is vital for the export of Ukrainian grain. After Russia denounced the Black Sea deal and threatened any foreign ship approaching Ukrainian ports, insurance companies have pulled out.
The Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, denounced yesterday "the serious security risks in the Black Sea" posed by the bombing of the Danube port of Rení, just on the other side of the Romanian river border and very close to the Moldovan border. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the attack was carried out using drones and lasted four hours. As a result, twenty-nine ships were blocked near the Ukrainian port of Izmaïl.
