NATO ships can accompany vessels with Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea after Russia’s withdrawal from the ‘grain deal,’ according to the report of James Stavridis, a U.S. Admiral and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO’s European Command (2009-2013).
“Under international law, such blockades are illegal. There is no state of declared war between the parties (recall this is, in Putin’s own words, merely a “special military operation”) and it would directly curtail freedom on the high seas. Putin is also weaponizing hunger by cutting food supplies to North Africa and other parts of the global south. Ukraine is among the world’s largest exporters of several key grains, fertilizers and flower oils,” emphasized Stavridis.
According to him, one of the mechanisms to end the blockade could be a practice used in the 1980s in the Persian Gulf when Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting 25% of the world’s hydrocarbon supplies. During that time, flags on Kuwaiti oil tankers were changed to American flags, effectively making them assets of the United States. However, a more convenient approach would be NATO escorting trade caravans with their forces.
I was under the impression that due to a treaty with Turkey that the US is quite limited in the number of ships we can send into the Black Sea. My concern if if we could reinforce those destroyers. If we are only allowed to send in like 3 and some support ships, that’s means we are outnumbered without backup being able to arrive. I wonder if we could get the UK, Turkey, France, etc to throw in some warships. That would give us enough combined since the lots are per country IIRC.
Just enough to provide support against direct harassment and missile strikes on international grain carriers. I suppose that turkey could send a few frigates or destroyers to escort grain ships.
Since Turkey is a NATO member, those would fall under Article 5 protection.
Any attack on those ship could then be met by an appropriate amount of force from NATO. If things go far enough, I could see some aerial action with F35’s and B2’s dealing with the offending assets.