The blocking of Ukrainian ports by Russia raises fears of a global food crisis, especially on cereals.
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Naval operation off Odessa, deliveries of anti -annual weapons or land bypassing: Ukraine and its allies seek by all means to break the maritime blockade imposed by Russia in the Black Sea. One of the challenges is to stop the risks of global food crisis, or even famine in countries, such as Egypt or Lebanon, the most dependent on cereal exports from the Ukrainian “granary”. p>
Time is running out. “Millions of people around the world will die because the ports are blocked,” said David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program on Thursday, May 19. According to him, Ukrainian ports must be operational in the next sixty days to avoid a global crisis. Ukraine is one of the main agricultural exporters in the world, providing around 12 % of cereals and half of sunflower oil consumed on the planet.
First option, the United States and some of its allies are considering Armer Ukraine to break the maritime blockade imposed by Russia several weeks before the start of its invasion. On Thursday, the Reuters agency revealed that Washington hesitates between the American missile Harpoon and the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) Norwegian. “Ukraine no longer has an operational fleet and the country has too few Neptune missiles [Ukrainian conception antinavires] to neutralize the 30 Russian combat vessels capable of shooting missiles,” explains Andrii Ryjenko, retired captain Ukrainian naval forces and president of the Ukrainian Institute for Law and Security at sea. For this expert, the best solution is indeed to use Harpoon or NSM missiles. >
“Their deployment in Ukraine seems difficult to me for reasons of systems availability, delivery, staff training; at best, we could imagine the truck on truck of the NSM, but I doubt that a sufficient number has been produced; one could also imagine a modification of the Harpoon Mer-Mer in Terre-Mer version, but it would undoubtedly require retired personnel and American volunteers, “said Alexandre Sheldon-Duplaix, naval analyst and historian, co-author of fleets of combat (Editions Ouest-France, 2018).
The track of an allied military operation is also under discussion. “Equipment deliveries will not be enough to secure convoys of cereal export,” said a Ukrainian diplomat, “hence the idea of launching an international naval operation, either under the British aegis or under the supervision of NATO “. According to him, it is a question of securing navigation corridors, departing from Odessa, under Ukrainian control, in order to leave the waters controlled by Russia.
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