, Columnist
NATO Convoys Can Protect Ukraine’s Grain Harvest From Putin
A naval plan that worked against the Iranian enemy in the 1980s can succeed against the Russian enemy today.
Taking first watch.
Photographer: Alexei Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images
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In the latest escalation of his war crimes against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pulled out of the painfully negotiated grain deal that for months has permitted exports of Ukrainian and Russian agricultural products from Black Sea ports.
There are several reasons for Putin’s withdrawal: frustration at Western sanctions; concern over Ukraine’s modestly successful counteroffensive; and anger at the Ukrainians’ bold strike on the symbolically and logistically important Kerch Strait bridge that connects Russia to occupied Crimea.