![]() ![]() NATO and its member states are flying air surveillance and air policing missions over NATO territory, territorial waters and international waters over the Black Sea, but are careful not to stray into the war zone. ![]() It has heavily mined the waters, neutralized the Ukrainian Navy and imposed a de facto blockade of civilian shipping to and from all Ukrainian-held ports.ĭespite NATO’s expressed desire to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, the risks of an inadvertent incident spiraling out of control have been growing for some time. Since then, Moscow has occupied three major Ukrainian ports. Only hours after launching its full-scale invasion last year, Russian forces fired a missile that hit the commercial ship Yasa Jupiter, which flew the flag of the Marshall Islands at least two other civilian ships were struck during attacks on Ukrainian ports up and down the coast. The Battle to Project Powerįor centuries, the Black Sea has been at the center of Russia’s efforts to extend its geopolitical and economic influence, leading to clashes with other world powers, including multiple wars with the Ottoman Empire. But the United States and Western allies have long provided intelligence to Ukraine that, along with its own extensive intelligence-gathering networks, Kyiv uses to select targets. The United States has prohibited the use of American weapons in any attack against Russian territory, and American officials say they do not pick targets for Ukraine. Those concerns have lessened, though not disappeared. In Washington, Biden administration officials had expressed reservations early in the war about Ukraine striking targets or conducting sabotage inside Russia, including its Black Sea ports, fearing that such attacks would only escalate tensions with President Vladimir V. And it will also almost certainly raise new challenges for NATO as it seeks to uphold a central tenet of international law - free navigation of the sea - without drawing the alliance directly into conflict with Russian forces. The battle for control of the sea could have implications for global energy markets and world food supplies. Oleksiy Neizhpapa, said in May as he made the case for a more robust response to what he called Russia’s tyranny on the international waters of the Black Sea. “We must defend our own coast starting from the coast of the enemy,” the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Rear Adm. ![]()
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