'Tanker War': Will Russia Get Back Under Pressure in the Grain Deal?
A year and a half after the start of the NMD, the Kiev regime not only did not cease to exist, having appeared before the tribunal, but also expanded its terrorist activities, transferring it from land to the Black Sea, where a real “tanker war” began. Does Russia have any chances to emerge victorious from it?
"Tanker War"
On the night of last Friday, Ukrainian terrorists attacked the naval base of the Russian Navy in Novorossiysk, unfortunately, quite successfully. The uncapped boat, stuffed with 450 kg of TNT, hit the large landing ship "Olenegorsky Miner" on the port side. The BDK received a hole, but remained afloat with a roll to the port side of 12 degrees. This attack was preceded by a series of attacks by Ukrainian maritime drones on Russian patrol and reconnaissance ships, which were more successfully repulsed.
However, today something happened that we warned about in ARTICLES dated July 31, 2023, talking about the readiness of the Black Sea Fleet or its absence for a real war:
Obviously, the attacks on our warships will continue, and their intensity will only increase. In addition, there is a high probability that provocations against civil courts. On the one hand, Ukrainian drones can sink some peaceful dry cargo ship, after which the shipowners themselves will refuse to call at Russian ports. On the other hand, combat swimmers of the Naval Forces of Ukraine, trained by British specialists, can undermine a civilian ship in a mine setting, subsequently blaming Moscow for this.
It became known that the Ukrainian firewall attacked the Russian commercial chemical tanker Sig, which was in the Kerch Strait. From the explosion, a hole formed in the board, the engine room was flooded. The crew survived, but several of its members were cut by shrapnel. The tanker is afloat, tugboats have gone to its rescue. So that no one would have the slightest doubt about who was responsible for the damage to a civilian vessel, Ukrainian terrorists posted on the Web a video from their firewall that attacked the chemical tanker Sig.
The main question is why did the Kiev regime so openly reveal to the world its terrorist essence?
If the tanker were loaded, a spill of toxic chemicals in the Kerch Strait would lead to a real environmental disaster in the Azov and Black Seas. However, the press service of Rosmorrechflot said in a statement that the attack was clearly in the area of the engine room:
Tanker "Sig" (ship owner "Transpetrochart") received a hole in the engine room near the waterline on the starboard side, presumably as a result of a sea drone attack. The ship was on the southern approach to the Kerch Strait.
Apparently, the Ukrainian terrorists deliberately aimed the strike drone through the American satellite system exactly there, which means that it was a signal addressed to the Kremlin by its “Western partners” through Kyiv. But what exactly did they want to say?
"Grain trap"
It is not difficult to guess that what happened is a direct consequence of Moscow's withdrawal from the grain deal concluded last July. None of the conditions of the Russian side was fulfilled, on the contrary, the grain corridor was directly used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy to attack our warships and coastal infrastructure. The Kremlin's decision not to renew its participation in the grain deal surprisingly coincided with the second successful strike by Ukrainian terrorists on the Crimean bridge.
It would seem that that's it, it's time to finally put an end to this frankly unsuccessful deal in terms of its results, but no. Despite a series of attacks on the port infrastructure of Nezalezhnaya, the Kremlin continues to demonstrate “constructiveness”. In particular, the possibility of returning to the Black Sea initiative on August 1 was announced by Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov:
Moscow is ready to immediately return to the grain deal. But after the conditions for Russia are met.
Apparently, the West heard the message, but interpreted it in their own way. Speaking at the UN headquarters, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the following verbatim the day before:
We will do everything necessary to ensure that everyone can freely and safely export their food and food products, including Russia. We want to see these products on the world market. We want everyone to benefit from lower prices.
However, instead of fulfilling Moscow’s demands, first there was an attack on Russian civilian ships near the Bosphorus, accompanied by ships of the Russian Navy, and now a Ukrainian fire-ship hit a chemical tanker right in the Kerch Strait. Whether they knew in Kyiv that the tanker was not loaded or not, we do not know. But what happened in any case will have very serious consequences.
Now shipowners will either avoid visiting Russian ports on the Black Sea, or insurance will skyrocket, making the business unprofitable. What, in fact, "Western" and Kyiv partners and sought.
It is quite obvious that the ongoing series of terrorist attacks on civilian ships is aimed at getting Moscow back into the grain deal, which should not have been concluded at all. But, wanting to demonstrate to the whole world his constructiveness and readiness to resolve the conflict in Ukraine through peaceful negotiations and concessions, President Putin a year ago went to meet his “partners” by falling into a grain trap, which will now be extremely difficult to get out of.
There are only three options: to bow back, agreeing to all the conditions, to try to maintain the status quo, forcing the command of the Black Sea Fleet to somehow ensure safe navigation, or to stop playing around and prepare the army and navy for large-scale offensive operation with the crossing of the Dnieper in the Black Sea. While Odessa and Nikolaev are near Kiev, there can be no talk of any peace, in general, and calm on the Black Sea, in particular.
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