Shortly after Reuters published an exclusive story that the White House was looking to move advanced anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, an official in Kiev said that the US is making a plan to sink Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko tweeted, "The US is preparing a plan to destroy the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet. The effective work of the Ukrainians on [Russian] warships convinced [the US] to prepare a plan to unblock the [Ukrainian] ports. Deliveries of powerful anti-ship weapons are being discussed."
Gerashchenko cited the Reuters report on Washington’s effort to ship Harpoon and Naval Strike Missiles to Ukraine. The missiles have a range of up to 300 km and cost $1.5 million each.
Three US officials and two Congressional sources told the outlet the White House was still working out the details for sending the advanced weapons to Ukraine. Logistical issues and the possibility the US would have to remove a launcher from one of its ships to send to Ukraine are current obstacles to completing the transfer.
Responding to a question from Newsweek, the State Department did not deny it was working on a plan to take out the Russian fleet. “As the conflict is changing, so too is our military assistance to deliver the critical capabilities Ukraine needs for today’s fight as Russia’s forces engage in a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine," a spokesperson said.
However, the Department of Defense issued a sharp denial of the claims made by the Ukrainians official. “I can tell you definitively that that’s not true,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday afternoon. The Pentagon denial applied only to the Ukrainian official’s assertion the US was helping sink the Black Sea fleet, and did not refer to the proposed anti-ship weapons transfer.
Gerashchenko said the attack would help to open up Ukraine’s ports. Russia currently controls the Black Sea and maintains a blockade. The UN has called for an easing of restrictions in the sea to allow food exports from Ukraine to help alleviate global food shortages.
Moscow has offered a diplomatic solution to the Black Sea standoff. On Thursday, the Kremlin proposed lifting the blockage in exchange for sanctions relief. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the problem goes beyond the blockade and includes Western sanctions restricting fertilizer exports. "You have to not only appeal to the Russian Federation but also look deeply at the whole complex of reasons that caused the current food crisis. [Sanctions] interfere with normal free trade, encompassing food products including wheat, fertilizers and others," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
“U.S. planning to sink entire Black Sea fleet?” They better tune up theirAnti Missile Shield too, because I believe if the U.S sinks, only one or two Russian ships in, or of the Black Sea Fleet that its “game on” and thermonuclear weapons will provide the answer which will inevitably open up NATO and the entire NATO Gnomedome to having their Capitol’s hit with the real McCoy!!!! NOW!!!!! Would be real GOOD time to prepare an exit from New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and anywhere missiles are produced. maybe a nice South American Holiday!!!!!!!
South America won’t be spared. If NY, LA or DC are nuked, there will be no place to hide.
Wars, I prefer to be vaporized instantly rather than a slow death from radiation poisoning 😐
Unfortunately you and I aren’t going to get a choice. Seems a bit unfair as we didn’t have any say on the policies that set this sh!tstorm in motion.
There will always be places to hide that give a better chance than in DC, New York to name a few. Why would Russia or China waste a weapon on a no threat area when in a life and death struggle. 90% will go to where the other side has missiles they can fire at them. Maybe 95%. Only a few to for revenge & Damage.
You did say “South American Holiday”. That is what I based my comment on. The whole world will be a sh*thole. The worlds economy will be shot so if you are lucky enough to survive nuclear winter, it won’t be a “holiday” anywhere. And I don’t really see any nukes being unused once they start flying so “wasting a weapon” won’t be on anyone’s mind.
How about a “Dreadlock Holiday?”
Any recommendations?…I prefer something with a hefty bomb shelter and a fully loaded bar…
I am sure if the people in S.America find out you are from the USA U will then have YOUR lights put out, for sure!
I think Mexico’s safe Donna, as long as you go far enough south 😉
Along with a pitcher of Margaritas.
You’re going to need a LOT of pitchers.
No worries, Sambor, I have a pretty low tolerance for alcohol 😉
Just another rabid Ukrainian running off at the mouth.
An act of war against a nuclear armed Russia.
Yes, very succinctly put CT. ‘Nuclear’ is the operative word…
In Dr. Strangelove you had an intellectual President (Peter Sellers) pitted against the pro-war Pentagon knuckledragger (George C. Scott.)
In the current scenario we have a mentally incapable President. So who is in charge? By the Dr. Strangelove example, and by observation I would guess the Pentagon knuckledraggers.
In the executive it is the Neocon “handlers” of the place-holder President. Re foreign policy, it is comprehensive Neocon control of the State Department.
The Pentagon, grounded by the reality of war, still maintains a degree of independence.
Welcome to peak Zionist control the United States. Now comes the crash.
Those who do it deserve to be the first to die, with all their family and friends and hangers-on.
Biden may say he only wants a regime change, a war would be Putin’s fault.
If President Putin leaves office a real hard line President may come in who does not tolerate obama’s puppet Joe Biden!
That is possible, but there is also a functioning Duma, it is not a dictatorship, at least as democratic as our government is, but maybe just more disciplined than what we have. We don’t get honest reporting to know better. Propaganda and demonizing is all we hear.
Really? The US president regularly has great difficulty pushing his legislative desires through the House and Senate. I am unaware of any problems Putin has ever had with the Duma.
Joe Biden is a corporate puppet, I think, maybe I misunderstand something?
Joe Biden’s press secretary admitted that obama consults with Joe Biden everyday.
No, she didn’t. She said “regularly”. And so what? You think Biden would be acting differently without Obama in his ear? He’s exactly what most of us thought he would be. Your fixation with Obama makes no sense. He’s a relative pipsqueak.
She said that obama consults with Biden everyday! obama is the anti-Christ and Biden is his mouthpiece!
BARRY INSTRUCTS JOE DAILY
Obama controls most of what the illegitimate potato does.
Obama hated America and American exceptionalism and said he’d put an end to it many times.
We’re currently in his 3rd term.
He set up the 2020 election coup and were currently living through an overload of “Fundamental Transformation” meant to destroy the United States, and it’s working.
So, you guys’ twins?
Spot on Ms. Littlejohn!
The targeting, guidance, and all the other technical stuff will be done by US ‘advisors’, but it will be a Ukrainian finger pushing the launch button to make it all nice and legal and absolve the US of any ‘combatant status’. Too bad the Russians have gotten pretty darned good at destroying Ukropo weapons depots as soon as they get shipments from the
Evil EmpireThe West.Fake News. There is no Russian blockade of the Ukraine.
The issue is Mariupol. That was Ukraine’s principal port for the export of agricultural products. The destruction of the Russian Black Sea fleet would ease the retaking of Mariupol by Ukraine.
Every once in a while I read articles or commentaries which praise our early presidents for “staying out of foreign entanglements”. As always the truth is more complex. At some point President Washington was pressured to declare war on France. After much soul searching he refused….because he knew that our navy would be destroyed by the French who could then land easily.
Once we had a strong enough navy and army all prudence went overboard. Mexico was the first country which found out.
What does GW have to do with our Empire war against Mexico?
We had better hope this is just Ukie bluster, OR we should start digging bunkers.
Honestly, if the USA attacked Russian warships with missiles (aka conventional warfare), and Russia responded by nuking an American city, that would be a rather pu$$y move by Russia. Conventional warfare should be answered by conventional warfare. No need to escalate to nuclear attacks on civilians.
Really? Should the $800 billion compared to $70 billion be a consideration?
I doubt nuking a city but I bet a few carrier battle groups will be sunk, and quickly. Purge the DC Ghouls in November or be responsible for what may be coming our way!
Jay, purging the DC ghouls and replacing them with different DC ghouls isn’t going to change anything.
That is not in the plan. 🙂
But that is what will happen.
Never happen. You have to find them first. I hear the “but satellites…” chatter now. When a carrier group wants to hide, you will be ver lucky to find it. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
USA “civilians” are also just as guilty as the DC Demons, they are Rah, Rah, and support the DC Ghouls. What goes around comes around.
It was that attitude on the part of the Americans that allowed them to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then justify civilian deaths by saying that it led to saving the lives of American servicemen.
How would they know Biden would not be the first to go nuclear? They can’t take chances. the goal is to win what is left of the scorched earth. Maybe Russia will take revenge like we would do?
Dresden, Germany, would like to say a few words to the WW2 Allies about ‘pu$$y moves’. On deck: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
War crimes, all.
However, might get the point across to the war mongers in Washington.
Bunkers won’t do shi#!
Don’t be so negative Jay!
My bunker is nicely stocked with supplies, guns and ammo
and a beautiful bottle of Irish whiskey!
Give me the coordinates!!
Kirby telling ANYONE what is and is not “true” is hilarious. Kirby is a worse liar than the infamous “Comical Ali” from the Gulf War days; the “man” (I use the term loosely, as “he” has no character, no morals, no dignity, no honor) would do anything to please his masters; Kirby is a Toady. a Lickspittle, a degenerate embarrassment. That something so pathetic and sniveling could have risen to be a senior officer in the military is an embarrassment to the institution.
More like,”typical”.
The crocodile tears over Russia’s “depravity” were the topper. Coming from a man representing the institution that makes depravity look like something to strive for.
Again, Wars, you receive the award for best comment! 🏆
If Putin hits the USA with just 3 nuclear bombs all the bravado and BS talk from the USA will come to a very quick end, and this is not an impossible scenario,,just keep pushing!
True, Because USA doesn’t have any Nukes.
“As well as offering a tactical advantage to help Ukraine’s war effort, the supply of more arms would also have global ramifications, as it would pave the way to a restart of shipments of grain and other agricultural products.”
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-russia-black-sea-missiles-putin-gerashchenko-harpoon-1708449
Paving the way to restart shipments to a nuke cratered world. Ramifications indeed.
“The missiles have a range of up to 300 km and cost $1.5 million each.”
Thankfully, that $1.5 million is only a tiny fraction of our overall budget. 😉 Otherwise, I might mention those potholes again.
And Medicare for all…etc. etc.
Even a small nuclear exchange will raise so much dust into the upper atmosphere agriculture will be affected for decades and 2 billion will die they estimate.
Also known as the goal for the depopulationists looking at a partial-failure on the Covid project.
Or the radiation could knock off billions imunosupresed from vaccines to prevent gain of functioned plagues.
Or the radiation could knock off billions imunosupresed from vaccines to prevent gain of functioned plagues.
Yeah, if this comes to pass…
I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sinking Russia’s fleet would do it, for sure.
I will let Shakespeare comment: “Hell is empty all the devils are here.”
Russia is at this point just playing aling. Not even trying to be serious!
Unblick Ukrainian ports? Which one? Is there one port that has not been mined by Ukraine at the beginning of war?
Did Russia order all vessells in Ukrainian ports to remain at their berths? No, Ukraine did. Afterwards laid mines to make it impossible for ships to come close to ports.
Odessa and another smaller port in the same region have about SEVENTY foreign freighters sitting there with skeletal crew, no fuel and dwindling food supplies.
What can Russia do about it? Ukraine’s minders are just picking any global supply problem to blame Russia.
There is also nothing left to ship. Until the new harvest they ecxported already all they could. With war, Ukraine woulld be wiser to keep supplies at home.
But then how to exolain the shortage of gas in some DC gas stations? How to explain this emergency military airlift of baby food in US?
When did it last happen that any commodity had to be airlifted by military? In this case from Germany.
Vaguely FDA was blamed for closure of a factory, even though itvwas an eggregious case of contamination.
Would not be shocked if — just as in the case of vaccine — FDA is rendered toothless to allow corporate experts to manage FDA’s decision.
We saw what happened with vaccines. Manufacturers of vaccines based in mRNA have commandiered the panel — and at first just outright lied about the efficacy of J&J, refusing to see actual data , and then boldly decided that J&J should not be used unless — thenblisting some exceptions. Among those are — people who refuse mRNA vaccines! We are witnessing a corporate fist fight — with the shady mRNA technology winning by Biden administration dismantling FDA scientific process of approvals and substituting it by a panel of “experts” under corporate control.
Watch it happen to foid safety!
This should be Buden’s priority not saving the world from hunger by mythical Ukrainian exports. Exports slready done before war started,
It is shocking to see Libertarian Institute publishing the map of ports that supposedly need deblockung. Those are all RUSSIAN ports in Aziv sea! Whatvare tgeyvtrying to say? That Russia is blocking its OWN wheat from being exported?
That Russia should allow Ukrainian wheat to be exported accross its territory and its ports?
Note, there is no Ukrainian port shown that are blicaded by Russia? Where is Odessa in this picture? The biggest port? Why not ask Ukraine to use Odessa? It is not under Rusdian control!
Oh yes, a small problem, In the day war started Ukraine blicked over 70 foreign ships from departing, and mined access to the port. Now those ships clutter tge available berths?
, it is not safe to leave, have skeleton crews, no fuel or even foid. Did Russia dio any of this to blick the largest port?
So what is the nouse all about?
Is it to make US populace believe that the shortage of baby food in US is due to Ruusian blickade? Is this the reason Biden dramatically used US military to airlift baby food from Germany? What a hero!
Ine can sell any story to credulous publuc.
But I never exoected Lubertarian Institute to show the map of RUSSIAN ports in an article discusding deblickung faramorgana.
The Friday Joke of the week…!
The problem with these shipping missiles is they need over the horizon radar targeting and that can only come from American AWAC’s in the Black Sea.
The Ukraine propaganda machine is an enemy of the US.
For years, Ukraine has drawn the US into trouble, courtesy of The Blob’s neocons and other hawks. They always wanted war with Russia, and they’ve almost got it.
We need to get out of this, not dive deeper into this.
Our warmongering media are a big part of the problem, but they’d back off with just the first signs of actual leadership in the US that does not seek wider war.
The Russians seized a lot of grain, at the same time as the US seized Russian assets.
There is plenty of grain, grown in Russia and seized, that is on ships controlled by Russia for which Russia would require payment. The US just does not want to buy that grain, nor to allow anyone else to buy it.
Yes, some grain in Ukraine is landlocked and unavailable, but on the numbers it is less than a quarter of the grain now off the market because of US sanctions.
No doubt, not to mention the plans for attacking their air defense network, their plans for taking out transport infrastructure between Ukr and Rus…. and their plans for invading Canada.
While the plans undoubtably exist, Biden would only use them after some act of Russian escalation, use of nukes springs to mind. Right now Biden is being careful not to escalate too much the quality of weapons that Ukr has. We are not giving them long range rockets for instance that would be very useful in attacking logistics installations fairly deep in Russia.
US Drawing Up Plans To Sink the US Navy
Ahhhh, clever, very clever! And terribly efficient…
Love your responses WH!
Is Wily Coyote hatching up yet another plan to get the Road Runner? He never learns, does he?
What could go wrong? Flawless script.
Do they think a nation of 144 million plus don’t have English readers that monitor the news? What happens if/when Russia starts with their own antiship missiles? Senator Lindsey Graham (with a couple others) unwisely, to punish Russia, has called on a fiddling & fudging with the definition of terrorism. The Cold War was full of State-Sponsored terrorism. Al Queda hit the USS Cole w/o antiship missiles. There are plenty of choke points to attack US naval interest. Who is to say , in the Russian calculation, they figure if we are punished as -we will not turn to terrorism to even the naval score? This is the foolishness of proxy war escalation.
Russia has the best antiship & hypersonic missles. Chasing Muslims around in the desert did not make America stronger, but weaker! During the Great War On Terror, Russia and China were building peer power deterrence. Hypersonic missiles, lighter faster more nimble fighter aircraft and their peerless air defense systems. The war on terror made us weak as we spent trillions on antiterror boondoggles. Now we see the results!
Check out moon of alabama for the facts. Russia is NOT blocking the ports and keeping the Ukie wheat from starving Africans (or EU greed). Ukraine has mined the sea and it is not safe and insurance is therefore withheld. UN Sec Gen is dishonestly pretending he does not know. Biden and BoJo need to rethink their sabotage of talks or the Russians will lose patience. Ze is refusing to make any concessions-he obviously wants Ukraine to be destroyed.
You are truly Delusional
Edit:
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news-roundup/russia-sets-conditions-to-ease-black-sea-blockade/
Don Julio:
Why are you soooooo abrasive?……………..
Because he is NOT a Pisces, Donna!
♓️
Emperor of Chaos strikes again. They won’t be happy till they get there Nuclear War with Billions dead.
Kirby is a liar.
If US goes ahead with this plan the war will enter a dangerous dimension with ending the Ukraine’s status as proxy army and opening up for a direct confrontation between the US/West and Russia.
It will quickly mean new radical polarization among world nations and rapidly create blocks with US and it’s vasal states in EU + Australia/Canada on one hand and Russia, China, Iran + some South American states on the other.
From there on it won’t take many days or weeks to any state in either block to consider the other block as an enemy and start assaults on the nearest ‘enemy’ to weaken the party on the other side.
Now a nuclear war is inevitable and it will be over in a very short span of time….it could be over in hours or days.
This is how the world elite and upper powers intend to remake the world map and recalibrate the control over the resources. According to the western powers they have calculated that they will gain the upper hand when the conflict is over and establish their “One World – One Government” and reign over the 12-14 % survivors of worlds population….which for sure is wrong and a big miscalculation.
As Martyanov says, first they have to get there, then they have to get a targeting solution, and then they have to get through a very effective naval AD. And then, of course, comes the retaliation – which will be a bitch. And if US ISR assets assist in the targeting, that retaliation will not be limited to Ukraine. The US could start to lose surveillance aircraft and satellites.
Plus Add your Russian Super Hacker friends. They can do a lot damage when they are p!ssed off.
Yes, THEY COULD, Don!
Yes, those are Your friends too.
DJ:
Lighten up!
I don’t want to be without a power grid anymore than you do, Don.
But Amerikkka is pushing’ it, and this might be a result.
US Drawing Up Plans To Sink the Russian Black Sea Fleet:
really ? uncle sam is “drawing up plans to … ”
as if uncle sam does not already have a metric sh*t-load of plans to cover every possible scenario.
The US is a paper tiger, and had has proved to be time & time again. If any ship is sunk by the US, Russia will take direct aim at all US military ships with conventional means. No need for nukes. Russia is far smarter, and savy than Uncle Sam, and the EU “keystone cops” …
The US is a paper tiger, and had has proved to be time & time again. If any ship is sunk by the US, Russia will take direct aim at all US military ships with conventional means. No need for nukes. Russia is far smarter, and savy than Uncle Sam, and the EU “keystone cops” …
Once again, we have sensible diplomatic offers on the table that will not only save lives and help with global hunger and inflation. Do I expect our leaders to take them up on it instead of choosing murder and quite possibly dragging the world into nuclear armageddon? Absolutely not. That’s the same world we live in.
Oooooh-Kay. I’m the furthest thing from a military expert, but doesn’t it seem a wee bit counterproductive to publicly announce one’s plans, in this case, destroying the Russian fleet?
Or perhaps Russia could collaborate with Iran and close the Straits of Hormuz 😁
Gypsy:
You are thinking so creatively!
Why, thank you Donna!
Don’t you think that you and I should rule the world? 😉
The Ukrainian is announcing the US’s plans. I would take that with a grain of salt. They want the Russians to attack us, then we would have to stop fooling around and really come in on the Ukr side. The Russians stupid as they are , aren’t that stupid.
How are we left with this article? Today’s Guardian reports that Zelinsky just said that only diplomacy can end this war.
True.
The problem is that the same diplomacy could have prevented this war. Better terms were available to Ukraine (and its US sponsor) before the war. After this fighting, and the losses, nothing like so good an outcome could be negotiated.
What if Putin dies or is removed by coup in a regime change? What we’d get in Russia would be worse, not better. The only alternatives now going have Putin as the moderate to their left, holding them back. Then any terms eventually available would be even worse for Ukraine. The resulting multipolar world would be even more hostile to the US, not managed by the US as hegemon.
Nobody in charge in the US would face this today. It would mean admitting their own massive mistakes to a public they have mobilized to the opposite beliefs. They just can’t. They’ve painted themselves into this corner.
If Zelinsky tried to get out of the corner himself, somebody would kill him. He’s in the same position as politicians opposing war in 1930’s Japan, when the crazies assassinated (sometimes seriously wounded) a series of politicians who tried to be more moderate. Zelinsky is surrounded by people like the right wing crazies of 1930’s Japan, used in turn as proxies by US Blob people who WANT war with a (false) sense of privilege to fight one without pain.
The Neocons thought THE GWOT would make America strong, but it MADE AMERICA WEAK. Russia & China spent time money upping their great game deterrence, not chasing nomads in deserts. We are now facing the consequences of the Neocon war on Arsbs & Muslims!!!!!
Unlike Iraq, the cool thing about Moscow’s WMD’s is you dont have to search for them, they will search for you.
Biden is selling arms for the MIC, does he get a commission and how much is it?/s The business of war is glorious.
I guess he has to make a living somehow… Why not blow up the world?! It’s all in a day’s work………………………………………………………….
The man in the WH is the most dangerous man on the globe. He suffers from dementia and in addition he has delusions of grandeur, and his advisers are really incompetent, that does not bode well.
Arrest and present him to the Hague for his many many crimes against humanity.
the most straightforward solution for all this would be diplomacy, but since the US doesn’t talk to Russian diplomats anywhere in the world any more, one can hardly look to that….
the simplest (but bloodiest) solution for this is for Russia to very quickly take over Odessa and all the rest of the Black Sea coastal area from the nationalists and neo0nazis of Ukraine.
personally I think this whole idea of the US to deliver these high precision anti-ship missiles to Ukraine is wishful thinking, BUT if it were an effective plan and those missiles were delivered and used, that would/could quickly lead to a tactical nuclear response by Russia.
If there’s anyone out there who thinks Russia would stand by and see its fleet sunk in the Black Sea without a massive conventional attack (perhaps going nuclear) on the command centers of the Ukraine, Nato and perhaps even the US, you are mistaken
lol
Will they do this before or after their manicures and pedicures?
I can’t believe no one has pointed out that this system would have to be REMOVED from one of our active ships! What idiocy! How much other equipment has been stripped from our units and ships so Biden can keep ip his foolish proxy war?
Russia in the Donbass has intervened in the 3rd Donbass war. The first was in 2014 which lead to the Minsk agreements, which Ukraine broke. The second Donbass war was in 2015 which lead to the Minsk2 agreements, which Ukraine broke.
Ukraine has 100,000 troops on the border of Donbass because they broke the Minsk2 agreement. Russia went in to protect the Russian speaking people. For 8 years Ukraine has been indiscriminately shelling the people of the Donbass, tens of thousands have died.
The Nazi’s in the Azov battalion will be processed in Russia by Russian courts.
If he just returned the Superbowl ring he stole this all might have not happened. 😉
I will believe it when I see that it happens.
We haven’t won a war in 77 years, everything the U.S. tried to fix since 1945 has been a total failure.
What the US is doing to Russia is the EXACT same methodology that they have used against rivals practically since our founding. Deep State wants its war and they intend to get it one way or another.
The size of the Russian Aid to liberated areas is massive. The Donbass Aid Train arrived in Ilovaisk. It was formed on the initiative of the All-Russian People’s Front and Russian Railways. It departed from Moscow, consisted of 68 wagons, of which 27 were intended for the LPR, and 41 for the liberated territories of the DPR. This is more than 2,400 tons of humanitarian cargo: food, personal hygiene products, medicines, flour, stationery, building materials and equipment, generators.
While the NATO Powers literally starve their populations the people of the Donbass will remain well fed. All NATO can do is destroy nations. Arrest them all for crimes against humanity.
A very large group of East Germans were demanding the Wall be put back. You cant make this sheet up.
Is the Red Cross also documenting and recording the condition of Russian POWs? I doubt it. The Al Jazeera journalist who accidently filmed a Red Cross Ambulance depositing a large number of soldiers of the UAF tells us everything.
It is quite apparent the leaders of the world, well the EU and USA, are determined to plunge the world into a world war, and a nuclear one at that. It just shows how truly depraved mankind really is. I have thought all my life 75+ years we were better than this ~apparently I was wrong!
What this is about is that the EU and US are desperate to get the ukranian wheat and grain harvest out amid the expected food shortages. Not that they care so much about the ukranians anymore, Nazi’s, ukies, or Russian speaking (they all spoke Russian and unofficially still does, before 2014), no not at all. They want to take the food out of their mouths.
Russia said that there is no blockade for merchant ships. Russia will let them pass. It is the zelensky Nazi regime that are keeping the ships and their crews hostage in the only port they still control, Odessa, and not only that, they have mined the sea with old WW2 but still very lethal soviet mines, some have turned up in the bosporous strait. Merchant ships in liberated ports are free to go and they have recieved all the necessary assistance from the Russian and Donetsk authorities.
US won’t give the Nazi’s any anti ship missile because if they do, these missiles will with our without Russian assistance end up with the Hezbollah, the Houtis, Iraqi resistance you name it. The list is long and Russia would probably not hesitate to donate some of their own. The hangover from handing out MANPADS willy nilly is yet to come that is for certain. If you want boats to blow up as well, go ahead….