President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Thursday that a Russian missile struck a cargo ship in the Black Sea that was carrying wheat in an attack off the coast of Romania.
If confirmed, it would be the first attack on a grain ship in open water since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and it would mark an escalation of conflict in the Black Sea. Mr. Zelensky said on social media that there were no casualties in the attack, which Ukraine’s military said was conducted by cruise missiles launched from strategic bombers.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain and is a particularly important supplier to countries in the Middle East and Africa. The exports are also important drivers of the country’s economy, and any interruption of the trade could be devastating.
At the outset of the war, Russia blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, shutting down all commerce. In July 2022, the United Nations brokered a compromise establishing a shipping corridor, but Russia backed out of the deal a year later.
Ukraine fought back with seaborne drones and long-range missiles, driving the Russian fleet out of eastern Black Sea and allowing trade to resume in a corridor along the coast. The volume of shipments soon bounced back to prewar levels, but that progress is now threatened.
The ship, the Aya, which sails under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk around dawn on Thursday, according to Tomas Alexa, a lead analyst for Ambrey Intelligence, a maritime risk management company. He said in an interview that it was traveling in a convoy when it was hit on its port side.
“The ship suffered damage to the cargo hold,” he said, adding that it had been able to proceed. The website MarineTraffic, which tracks global shipping using satellite data, said the Aya is currently located off the coast of Romania near the port of Constanta. Mr. Alexa said the ship was not at risk of sinking.
The Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is frequently used by shippers for so-called flags of convenience, which are typically unrelated to the place of business of the owner.
An attack on a ship is considered an act of war, but the nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, which includes two islands and has a population of less than 50,000, would be unable to respond militarily. The Ukrainian Navy released a statement saying that Russia continues to demonstrate “complete disregard” for maritime law.
A Kremlin spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesman for Ukraine’s southern command, said in a telephone interview that the ship had been hit by a missile from a Russian military jet while it was in “the exclusive economic zone waters of Romania. It was not in the grain corridor of Ukraine.”
That is an important distinction. Under the Law of the Sea Treaty, Romania claims a sovereign territorial zone of 12 miles and an exclusive economic zone of 200 miles. Had the attack occurred in the sovereign zone it would have carried far more serious implications than in the exclusive economic zone, which is considered to be international waters.
There was no immediate comment from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Ukraine exports around five percent of the world’s wheat and 10 percent of its corn, according to Sal Gilbertie, the president of Teucrium, a U.S.-based investment advisory firm. He said that the wheat markets had not moved as a result of the attack but that it was nevertheless a “big deal” that could make it harder for Ukraine to ship its commodities.
“This is not just an attack on wheat markets. It’s an attack on corn markets and an attack on food. It’s a rare thing,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky emphasized Thursday the importance of Ukrainian food deliveries to African and Middle Eastern countries, many of which are suffering food shortages. “We will continue to make every effort to safeguard our ports, the Black Sea and food exports to global markets. This is Ukraine’s true priority, to protect life, and it should be the priority of all countries,” he said.
The Black Sea has been a crucial theater in the war, with Ukraine mounting a series of attacks on Moscow’s navy, including sinking the flagship of the Black Sea fleet in April 2022. In August last year, Russia’s navy boarded a freighter in the Black Sea to enforce a blockade, firing warning shots. But until now, both sides had refrained from attacking commercial shipping.
The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei K. Shoigu, said on Tuesday that Russia had considered a Turkish proposal for both militaries to refrain from strikes on civilian ships in the Black Sea and energy infrastructure within each country. But the talks ended last month after Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region in Russia.
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