Grain Ship Sunk in the Black Sea: Food Security, Measured in Deaths

The Turkish grain ship "Royad Mammadov" sank in the Black Sea on Monday after a drone attack. The 139-metre vessel was sailing from Ukraine's Danube port of Izmail to Ravenna in Italy and went down about 30 nautical miles south of the Romanian port of Sfântu Gheorghe, inside Romania's exclusive economic zone. Two crew members died, according to Romanian authorities including the captain. Eleven people were rescued, three of them injured. The crew came from Azerbaijan and India.

President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia. Romanian authorities have not commented on who was responsible, and there is no independent confirmation so far. A day later Bulgaria called off the search for ten sailors from another Turkish freighter that had also sunk after a drone strike.

At conferences it is called food security. At sea it means: captain dead, cargo on the seabed.

Every attack pushes up insurance premiums and freight costs, and in the end the bill lands with countries that depend on grain imports, often the poorest. Governments regularly stress how vital safe trade routes are. True. World trade works much better when ships reach their port and do not end up as a footnote in a diplomatic protest.