Yoruk Işık | Reuters The world is facing a global food crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine, with rising prices being felt around the world as a result of the Russian invasion – and naval mines are a big part of the problem. Russia and Ukraine are increasingly negotiating barbecues over the Black Sea mines, which are being used by Russia for political gain as the blockade of Ukrainian ports continues. “The biggest obstacle to grain exports is clearly the Russian blockade, and that includes the mines,” Maximilian Hess, a Central Asia fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Research, told CNBC on Thursday. “The real issue is that Russia seems to intend to use it as a leverage.” Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for using the mines to disrupt shipping and prevent grain exports from leaving the country, a factor that has contributed to rising global food prices. Ukraine has even accused Russia of hijacking Soviet-era naval mines in order to deliberately disrupt shipping and world food supplies, saying such mines were in fact “uncontrolled drones”. Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia have been made more than once. Moscow also blamed international sanctions on the country for the global food crisis and said exports could resume as soon as Ukraine removes mines from its ports. Ukraine has refused to do so, saying it would allow Russia to attack most of its coastline. Odessa, its last major port operating (and mining) further west along the Black Sea coast, is particularly vulnerable. A sign reads “Caution: mines” on the beach in Odessa, Ukraine, in April 2022. Anastasia Vlasova Getty Images News Getty Images William Alberque, director of strategy, technology and weapons control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told CNBC that Ukraine would be “crazy” if it did not land mines at its ports and that its reluctance to remove them now made sense. “You can fully understand why Ukraine would be using naval mines right now. The possibility of an amphibious attack on Odessa was something the Russians explicitly did,” he said on Thursday. But the generals agree that Russia is now using the mines to its economic and military advantage. “Mining is a real obstacle to grain exports from Ukraine … and a big problem,” Sidharth Kaushal, a naval expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told CNBC on Thursday, noting that Russia was a strategic for mines. “It is definitely an excuse for the Russians who are there because they can selectively evacuate ports they control, try to reroute trade and maintain a de facto blockade of Odessa, while claiming that it all concerns the Ukrainians.” Ukraine does not deny that it mines its own ports to protect them from an amphibious attack by Russia, as one of its main military objectives is to gain control of Ukrainian ports along the Black Sea coast. These include Odessa and those along the Sea of ​​Azov, such as Mariupol, which was occupied by Russia after a fierce, aggressive siege.

Ripple effect

During a high-profile visit to Turkey this week (which, like Ukraine and Russia, also encircles the Black Sea), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that if Ukraine demined its ports, grain exports they will be able to start again. He also said Russia would guarantee the safety of Ukrainian ships leaving ports and would not use the situation – essentially a deforested, unprotected southern Ukrainian coast – to its advantage. “These are guarantees from the Russian president,” Lavrov said after talks with Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşo .lu. A shipyard worker watches as barley grains are mechanically dumped on a 40,000-ton ship at the shipment terminal of a Ukrainian agricultural exporter in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikolaev on July 9, 2013. Vincent Mundy | Reuters Ukraine was reasonably cynical about Russia’s offer, with Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba saying any assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin – who has repeatedly said Russia had no plans to invade Ukraine in the months leading up to its invasion. February 24 – was hollow. Meanwhile, the United Nations continues to warn of the tidal effects of the war in Ukraine, which it says has created a serious cost-of-life crisis and has affected food security, energy and funding. The agency estimates that about 1.6 billion people in 94 countries are exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis, with about 1.2 billion living in “perfect storm” countries very vulnerable to all three factors. “The impact of the war in Ukraine on food security, energy and finances is systemic, serious and accelerating,” Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said on Wednesday. We must act now, he added, “to save lives and livelihoods in the coming months and years.”