Black Sea: the value and riches of the new point of tension between Russia and Ukraine

As if the differences in the middle of the war were not enough, the Black Sea has refloated this week as a source of tension between Russia and Ukraine. Although the invasion launched by Moscow more than a year ago has been fought mainly on land, the waters of that sea have also been a vital scenario on various fronts in the war.

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The latest disagreement between kyiv and Moscow flared after the Ukrainian government proposed that the Black Sea, where Russia has a naval fleet, become “a NATO sea.”

“The time has come for the Black Sea to become a NATO sea, like the Baltic Sea,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday at a conference on Black Sea security.

Denouncing Russia’s imperialist policies, Kuleba argued that while the West never had coherent strategies on the Black Sea, Russia always had “an aggressive plan.”

He recalled that a year ago the Russian flagship Moskva sank and was destroyed. “Other Russian warships will meet the same fate with the support of our friends and partners,” he added in a video message sent from Ukraine.

The “Moskva” (Moscow) was equipped with 16 Bazalt/Voulkan anti-ship missiles, Fort missiles, which are the marine version of the long-range S-300 missiles. It also had rocket launchers, cannons, and torpedoes. (Photo: AFP)

Russia was quick to react: “The Black Sea will never be a ‘NATO sea’, it is a common sea,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov.

He added that for all the coastal States it must be a sea “of cooperation, interaction and security. Furthermore, it should have indivisible security.”

strategic waters

Ukraine claims that the Black Sea is of special importance in ensuring peace in Europe and has argued for many years that its waters are essential to its efforts to contain Russia. If that sea is strategic, it is mainly due to its location.

The Black Sea has six countries on its shores. Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria are NATO members, while others, such as Ukraine and Georgia, are friends of the alliance. The other country that has access to its waters is… Russia.

For this reason, the waters of the Black Sea, located on the southeastern flank of Europe, have long been the arena of competition between the United States and its European allies, on the one hand, and Russia and its sphere of influence on the other, dynamic that has been strengthened by the war in Ukraine, says the newspaper “The New York Times”.

“If you had to rank the places in the world where the US and Russian militaries could physically meet, the Black Sea would probably be near the top of the list.”, says the outlet, highlighting the region’s potential to become a hotspot, accidentally or otherwise.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent years trying to increase his influence in the area, causing instability, as evidenced by his war with Georgia in 2008 and uprisings against Moscow’s meddling in the politics of countries in the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo: Alexander VILF / POOL / AFP) (ALEXANDER VILF /)

“But Putin’s biggest power play around the Black Sea was the occupation of Crimea, a strategic peninsula that Russia seized from neighboring Ukraine in 2014. That improved Russia’s position on the Black Sea and helped try to consolidate the control of Sevastopol, a hot territory and water port”says “The New York Times”.

Russia was able to annex the Crimean peninsula because its navy has dominated the Black Sea for many years.

After that fact, NATO members further expanded their maneuvers in the area, something that intensified with the invasion of Ukraine.

At this point it is important to remember that at the start of the conflict Turkey exercised its right to close the strait to most military traffic – a power it can exercise in wartime as it controls two straits, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.

At present, only the countries with coastlines on the Black Sea have ships in the water, and among them Russia and Turkey have the most powerful fleet.

Commercial route

The Black Sea is a crucial connection between the ports of the six bordering countries and the Mediterranean Sea. As expected, the war complicated maritime trade for those nations.

In the first months of the conflict, Russia blocked grain exports from Ukraine, one of the world’s top producers, raising fears of an international food crisis that would hit poor nations the hardest.

The situation was brought under control in July 2022 when an agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN established a corridor for ships carrying grain and other crops to leave Ukrainian ports. The pact also allowed Russia to send its own shipments of food and fertilizer.

However, Russia declared on Thursday the 13th that it would not extend the agreement on grain from the Black Sea beyond May 18, unless the West removes a series of obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizers.

“We note that, despite all the high-sounding comments about world food security and aid to countries in need, the Black Sea Initiative served and continues to serve exclusively Kiev trade exports in the interests of Western countries,” the statement said. the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Source: Elcomercio