Kyiv, Ukraine – Three black naval drones resembling oversized plastic toys struck a freighter sluggishly navigating the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria on October 28. Aerial drones joined the attack, and explosions rocked the Liberian-flagged Contship Jet Monrovia, loaded with more than 400 terracotta-coloured containers. The vessel, travelling from the Israeli port of Haifa to Romania, listed and sank, but all 18 crew members were rescued, Bulgarian authorities said.
The daytime assault was filmed by crew members, other ships and photographed by a French surveillance plane. The drones were Russian, Kyiv claimed, adding that the attack was designed to make the Black Sea unsafe for civilian ships, paralyse Ukraine’s exports of grain and further hobble its war-ravaged economy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv’s forces conducted “no operations in this part of the sea, and this latest tragedy involving civilian vessels is another part of Russia’s effort to make the western Black Sea completely unfit for navigation.” The European Union’s delegation to Kyiv said in August that Russia is “systematically strangling Ukraine’s ability to feed the world.” It added that by targeting ports, shipping lanes, and agricultural infrastructure, Moscow is not just waging war on Ukraine, but also “weaponising hunger against millions in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.” And while Europe’s food security is not at stake, the EU is “fully committed to continue supporting Ukraine’s access to international markets,” Paula Ritter-Moschutz, a spokeswoman for Agriculture and Customs at the European Commission, told Al Jazeera.
Moscow’s alleged campaign follows Ukrainian strikes on Russian freighters and oil tankers in the Black Sea and the adjoining Sea of Azov amid attacks on oil refineries, military plants and warehouses. Those strikes intensified in July, and Moscow’s suspected retaliatory attacks may have been prevented, observers say. Russian President Vladimir Putin “definitely liked the idea of completely ruining Ukrainian exports,” he said.
Russian farmers and grain exporters usually ship more than two-thirds of their harvests via the Black Sea. As a result of the lack of security, they are testing exporting grain through the Arctic port of Murmansk, though the distance between the farms and the buyers will significantly increase costs. Before Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, about a third of the world’s grain exports passed through the Black Sea, and Ukraine provided a tenth of global wheat exports and 15 percent of corn.
Ukraine’s customers include Middle East and North African nations. Over the past 12 months, wheat prices rose by a fifth. Chicago wheat futures, a global benchmark for the wheat market, have gone up from $5.03 per bushel (35 litres) in October 2025 to $6.03 in October this year.
The US-Israel war on Iran, global warming and a drought in South Africa have also contributed to the spike. Constant Russian strikes by jet-powered drones, cruise and ballistic missiles brought operations in Ukraine’s largest maritime hub, Odesa, to a halt. Hardly more than 50 percent of grain can be exported via land routes,” Viktor Honcharenko, president of the Association of Farmers and Private Land Owners of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.
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