Dozens of ships are stranded on the Danube River in the wake of Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian maritime export infrastructure, navigation data shows.
This comes after Russia embarked on a campaign to destroy ports, grain silos, and other crucial export infrastructure following Moscow’s exit from the Black Sea agreement.
The river and its mouth are the last remaining safe grain export routes by water in Ukraine. At least 30 ships have anchored around the Black Sea’s Musura Bay, which leads into the Danube’s Sulina channel, tracking data from analytics company MarineTraffic showed on Tuesday.
Another 20 ships have anchored on the passageway leading to the Ukrainian port of Izmail, and at least 20 merchant vessels are waiting near the Romanian port of Constanta.
Before Russia pulled out of the agreement in July, a quarter of Ukraine’s grain exports were carried on the Danube route, but that will have to increase dramatically now that it is the only viable route.
Russia ended the agreement guaranteeing grain supplies in the Black Sea and threatened to destroy any ship bound for Ukraine as a hostile target. The belligerent nation has continued to attack Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure since the agreement was terminated by regularly bombing the two largest remaining Ukrainian seaports, Odessa and Mykolaiv.
Russian air strikes have already destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukrainian reports.
