Black Sea Grain: Russia Bought Itself a Famine
85 per gallon, per Bloomberg, as wars in Iran and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict push energy markets toward territory nobody priced in.
Russia's drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency in Kyiv in an attack Kyiv's foreign minister called a "major escalation" — but the strike that will feed the most people into crisis may be the quieter war playing out on the water.
A summer of coordinated Russian and Ukrainian attacks in the Black Sea killed more seafarers than in all the war's preceding months combined, according to The Guardian. Grain ships stopped moving. Ports fell silent. The corridor that feeds North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia — disrupted, repeatedly, deliberately.
The timing compounds everything. US retail diesel has climbed to a record $5.85 per gallon, per Bloomberg, as wars in Iran and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict push energy markets toward territory nobody priced in. Trucking costs rise. Shipping insurance rises. Food that was already expensive becomes more so.
The SBU strike and the Black Sea blockade are not separate stories. They are the same strategy: degrade Ukraine's capacity to fight while ensuring the world feels the cost of supporting it. Zelenskyy has ordered his intelligence services to respond. The grain corridor has no equivalent instruction to give.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected in Moscow and Kyiv to restart stalled peace talks, according to BBC News. The diplomats will arrive to find two capitals measuring escalation in very different currencies — one in buildings struck, the other in tons of wheat that never shipped.
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*By Isla Camilleri, Global Affairs & Lifestyle Editor — News Beast by FreeMalta.com*
