For the third night in a row, Russian forces launched a massive series, perhaps the largest so far, of missile strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea port facilities that were supporting military activities. There were strikes on Odessa and Nikolayev, but also strikes far outside the Black Sea region, including in the Sumy region, which borders Russia’s Kursk region. The strikes came following a Russian Defense Ministry warning that any ships heading to Ukrainian ports after midnight on July 20 would be treated as potential carriers of weapons to the Kiev regime. Slavyangard.org noted last night that the Russian campaign would make impossible any plans by the Kiev regime to resume grain exports unilaterally.
Reuters reported early this morning statements by the Kiev regime regarding trying to ship grain via the territorial waters of Bulgaria and Romania. The regime is also calling on the international community to provide escorts for ships going to Ukrainian ports, but Kiev’s schemes for grain shipping in the aftermath of Moscow’s ending of the grain deal are likely to go nowhere. Number one, no one is going to provide insurance to commercial vessels heading towards a war zone, and secondly, no country has shown any interest in providing naval vessels to escort them, least of all Turkiye, which is still engaged in diplomatic efforts to resurrect the grain deal.
