The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the US is considering “military solutions” to protect shipments of grain leaving Ukraine’s Danube River ports as an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal that Russia recently exited.
The Journal cited an unnamed senior US official based in Washington. The report reads: “The US is considering all potential options, including military solutions, to protect ships headed to and from Ukraine’s Danube ports, the Washington official said, but declined to give specifics on those options or say what countries would be involved in them.”
Since Russia decided not to renew the grain deal, the war has significantly expanded in the Black Sea. Russia has been bombarding Ukraine’s ports, including those on the Danube River, which are just across the waterway from NATO member Romania. Ukraine has also declared war on Russian commercial shipping and targeted a Russian tanker with a sea drone attack. Over the weekend, Russia fired warning shots and boarded a cargo ship that was headed to Ukraine.
The Journal report said that the US is in talks with Turkey, Ukraine, and other regional countries on an alternative grain deal that would involve increasing Ukraine’s capacity to ship grain out of the Danube River. Ships carrying Ukrainian grain would go to nearby ports in Romania, and then from there, the cargo would be shipped to its destination.
If the US or any other NATO nation is involved in securing safe corridors for ships leaving Ukrainian ports, it would risk a direct clash between the Western alliance and Russia.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh was asked about the situation in the Black Sea on Tuesday and said she didn’t have anything to announce. “We’ve been very clear we don’t seek war with Russia and that this is, you know, a fight that we are helping support Ukraine in. But at this moment, I don’t have any announcements to make when it comes to the Black Sea or any secure of helping shipments move out,” she said.
While the US is considering alternatives to the grain deal, the UN and Turkey are working to try and restore the original agreement with Russia. Moscow said it would rejoin when it was satisfied with Western efforts to facilitate the export of Russian agricultural goods. One of Russia’s main demands is reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payment system.
If we’re not careful, we could find ourselves in a potential war with the Russians…
There are already some serious escalations in Syria so I think we’re passed the point of “potential” war. We are at war. Best hope now is to avoid WMD escalation.
The irony of stealing Syrian oil in country while squatting there illegally is just unbelievable.
These jackasses are beyond description.
Maybe it would be better if The NATO Gnomes knew what one of the Russian 200 megatons Big Boys could do to a small country, but not use it on a city full of woman & children, like the U.S. did in JAPAN….!!!!! Maybe a little show of the BIG danger would make the less capable hotheads get real. I don’t think many of the hotheads want 2C the gloves off…
I’m pro-Eurasia. Peace through strength and determination is a right solution but even I find this hard to believe. 200mgt is a very large boom. Even if what you say is true, I don’t see any kind of nukes as useful. At all. You simply don’t need that kind of firepower to exterminate few parasites.
But but – the Pentagon spokesperson said “We’ve been very clear we don’t seek war with Russia…”
See, what are you worried about?
The Biden crew, Blinken, Nuland, CLINTON, Pitt, Sullivan think careful means to be careful not to slip on the stairs, NOT don’t stumble into WWIII…!!!!!
The Wall Street Journal reported
I quit reading right after that. The Murdoch propaganda rag does not report. It injects propaganda narratives beneficial to the Anglo-American imperial regime.
Amen!
Actually, the WSJ is not quite as bad as the rest of the mainstream media. WaPo and NYT are actually worse.
Wall Street Journal
They spelled War wrong!
Just when I think Biden’s gang couldn’t get much more stupid, …. well I guess we all know how that goes.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed467aace8260cd5fcd0270e963ae008298b9d70028d5c88cbbbafc9cf678c85.jpg
They spelled sense wrong!
Considering what Dementia Joe has been doing to the economy, that’s about right.
LOL
“Report: US Considering ‘Military Solutions’ to Protect Shipments from Ukraine’s Danube River Ports – Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s Danube River ports, which are across from NATO member “Romania”
Does the rest or the world know that 80% + of Americans say FJB?
Anyone else finds it funny to hear the “US Considering ‘Military Solutions?’” Dude! I wish we can go for one day without the “US Considering ‘Military Solutions!!!!’” (Sarcasm)
according to that map, Danube River appears to be entirely inside Romania, not Ukraine.
so. who is making the land-grab now?
For clarity:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3331702,28.8260768,862m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
“The US is considering all potential options, including military solutions… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/638988cc6cc4a889465c436dfae946da388dc29a5321597e9296127c3bae8368.jpg
“We’ve been very clear we don’t seek war with Russia and that this is, you know, a fight that we are helping support Ukraine in.”
They haven’t been remotely clear. You keep pushing us towards nuclear armageddon.
The idea that NATO military action in the Black Sea could be a “solution” to any problem, any problem at all, is just about as bizarre as an idea can be.
The only thing keeping Ukraine from shipping grain by rail today is that the cost of doing so drives the price up. They tried selling it at distress prices. But neighboring countries prohibited that because it was hurting their own farmers. Romania is one of the countries that won’t allow the sale of Ukraine’s grain inside their borders.
The scheme to ship grain through Romania also raises costs. This scheme is literally dead in the water.
“Since Russia decided not to renew the grain deal”
No one explains why:
1. It called for a ceasefire in the Black Sea. Russian ships were attacked by drones several times. Ukraine denied they were their drones, and that may be true, they were probably British.
2. Russia identified weapons smuggling on grain ships that was banned.
3. Russia was allowed to sell its grain too, but the west refused to process bank transactions from nations to pay for it.
The worse Biden’s prospects get politically, the more I fear that US will rattle the sabres
Direct clash won’t happen. A scale arms can’t move each other without the help from another.
If yanky ships get in the way i say to Putin sink them then see what happens , not much i don`t think , the yanks ain`t going to take on a country like Russia who can fight back .
It would be a mistake for Putin to escalate on this particular issue.
If he wants to come out of the matter with a navy, anyway.
LOL Russia owns the Black Sea. Feel free to send the entire US Navy there, Knapp. See what happens. It’s the US that will lose a Navy. You have zero fucking clue what you’re talking about – as usual.
What does the US Navy have to do with it? They can’t send any ships into the Black Sea without Turkey’s permission to transit the Bosporus.
Any “military solutions” will involve Turkey letting the Russians know that fuckery will be followed by both naval retaliation AND closure of the Bosporus to all Russian sea traffic, military and civilian.
Odd how it is that I’m the one who has no idea what he’s talking about, while you’re the one who’s invariably been wrong in your predictions.
You’re an idiot if you think Turkey is going to cross Russia on this. And Turkey will not risk any military confrontation with Russia, NATO membership or not. You just keep coming up with these delusional digs at Russia like anyone cares what your hallucinations mean. Take a sleeping pill and leave the conversation to the adults.
Apparently Erdogan is an idiot too, since he’s already crossed Russia on this.
The Ukrainian “corridor” crosses Bulgarian and Romanian portions of the Black Sea to get to Turkey. The only thing Russia would accomplish by pretending it gets to attack ships in the waters of any of those three countries is to turn just about the closest thing it has to friends in Europe completely against it.
Bulgaria and Romania have nothing to do with Turkey, so Turkey doesn’t care what Ukraine does in their waters and is not a party to the conflict so doesn’t care what Ukraine OR Russia does in their waters as long as it doesn’t threaten Turkey. Turkey doesn’t own the Black sea any more than Russia does in commercial terms. But Russia controls the Ukainian coast in its entirely with the Black Sea Fleet in military terms.
As MoA noted yesterday, the ONLY reason that ship was allowed to leave was because CHINA requested it officially. Neither did it carry any grain, but only regular containers. Read the MoA report and get a clue.
As Bernhard notes: “The map may help to avoid the anchor mines the Ukrainian navy has dropped into the sea but it will not hinder Russian forces from following their orders. Any ship that wants to go to Odessa or any other Ukrainian port or leave from them will have to at least be checked by Russian forces and may well be told by them to turn around.”
No one is in a position to hinder the Russian Navy from doing whatever they wish to ships within the territorial waters of Ukraine. Certainly not Turkey and not the US or any other member of NATO. Not unless they want to lose a navy.
“Bulgaria and Romania have nothing to do with Turkey”
In your imagination, perhaps. In reality, they are neighboring countries with a common interest in freedom of navigation on the Black Sea in general and on the security of their respective waters in particular. In 2016 Turkey and Romania came out together in support of a NATO Black Sea flotilla. Bulgaria vetoed the proposal, but at this point may wish it hadn’t. And the proposal can always be brought back for reconsideration.
Turkey, not Russia, determines whether craft hostile to Russia get to enter the Black Sea.
Your last paragraph is irrelevant to the point as Russia is already in the Black Sea and NATO isn’t and won’t be. And Russia is not “threatening freedom of navigation” in the Black Sea. It is threatening ships that attempt to enter or leave Ukrainian ports without being inspected for cargo which Russia does not want Ukraine to receive or export.
As for Turkey, read this article – the WHOLE article:
Turkey warns Russia after cargo ship incident in Black Sea: Turkish presidency
https://tvpworld.com/72079109/turkey-warns-russia-after-cargo-ship-incident-in-black-sea-turkish-presidency
Note the part that says:
And the part that says:
Yeah, that really sounds like Turkey is prepared to go to war with Russia over “freedom of navigation” to Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea.
Get a clue instead of making up bullshit just to be a troll.
Turkey doesn’t have to “go to war with Russia” over “freedom of navigation” to Istanbul, whatever the originating port.
Turkey can just tell Russia “your Mediterranean access card has been suspended. No Russian vessels will transit the Bosporus until you knock that shit off.”
Turkey can make it stick, too.
And Russia knows that.
Hmmm. If ever there was something called wishful thinking – here is a good example. I fully understand the nentality if the ibsessed so desparately dragging US into war.
But to assume that Turkey will be persuaded to be US proxy? Turkish economy is well integrated into Russian, Chinese and Central Asian countries. Energy alone – oil, gas and nuclear — will make Turkey tread carefully. Food, like wheat, Turkey imports from Russia. Its vegetable export goes mostly to Russia. Its nissile defence is based on Rusdian technology. And what does Turkey get from US? Let us start with Patriot debacle during Syrian civil war. With attempted coup, supportinn Gulen, and endless attacks on lira.
Little ibjectivity in this ness may be in order.
It’s not about Turkey being a “US proxy.”
Letting Russia get away with attacking ships in Turkish, Romanian, and Bulgarian waters is not in Turkey’s interests.
And Erdogan has Russia (and everyone else) by the nuts when it comes to sea traffic to and from the Black Sea.
Why WOULDN’T he use that testicular hold in Turkey’s interests?
Knapp is not capable of objectivity when it comes to Russia. He just hates Russia and then lies about not hating it. He has zero intellectual integrity. Why Antiwar.com tolerates him is is beyond me. It severely injures what credibility the site has left.
Anyone who says I “hate Russia” is either an ignoramus or a lying sack of shit. Or both.
The Pentagon cowards can’t even enter the Black Sea without (politically) demolishing Turks
Andrei Martyanov discussed this back on July 19:
Then as someone pointed out in the comments, what insurance company will insure such ships in a war zone without guarantees from both parties?
Moon of Alabama also discusses the event of a ship leaving Odessa port unmolested by Russia. It was not a victory for Ukraine…
Why This Ship Was Allowed To Leave Ukraine
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/08/why-this-ship-was-allowed-to-leave-ukraine.html
Moon of Alabama is fine with posting an article a week after the superior blogs.. Don’t waste your time..
On the contrary, MoA puts Antiwar.com to shame daily. Bernhard’s analyses are head and shoulders over the crew they allow to post articles here (with some notable exceptions including Ray McGovern and some others.) Anyone not reading MoA is the more ignorant for it.
Trust me, the US will do nothing but preen, prance and posture. The United States fears a direct confrontation with the Russian Federation.
VERY CLEAR, We ARE (at least Russia-obsessed wing of both parties) seeking war with Russia.
That may be.
The initial US objectives seem to have been to close off western European markets to Russian energy, and to scare the NATO countries into increasing their military spending.
The first goal is pretty much accomplished (Germany just announced that its stored LNG reserves are where they need to be for the coming winter).
But Germany also just backed off on its plan to increase military spending.
So the US might continue escalating in an attempt to put the scare back into NATO countries. But short of going nuclear, it’s unclear what the Russians could do to come off as very scary.
Of course you won’t waste your time with Knapp. His response was simply mind-boggling in its disconnect from the reality of Gerrmany’s de-industrialization. And the notion that Russia doesn’t have a dozen ways to escalate is also risible. The man is nothing but an anti-Russian troll with zero grasp of military realities and apparently no grasp of economic ones, either.
Objectivity is all gone. Boils down to scaremongering — Russia just has to use nukes! Does it? There are just so many ways Russia can escalate. Nuke scaremongering serves a purpose. In unison we are to demand that “something must be done!” To stop big bad Russiia from using nukes!
It is the desparate that dream of magic bullet. Desparate US to come up with a magic bullet. Nothing works. Desparation never does.
Russia doesn’t have to use nukes.
But at this point, that’s the only thing Russia has left that could put a scare into western Europe, since its conventional forces turned out to be sad sacks that haven’t even been able to secure the Donbas after 18 months of trying.
Another example of complete lack of military conceptual knowledge. Russia is sitting back, letting Ukraine die at the current rate of 60-100,000 troops per month while its own rate of losses is at least a tenth or less of that.
The vaunted “NATO-trained” reserves have failed to even penetrate the floating security zone, let alone come near the first actual line of Russian defenses. And Russia hasn’t even committed at least 150-200,000 troops to the front; they are still sitting in the rear waiting for the moment when the Ukrainian army collapses – which is beginning to happen in the north near Kharkiv and will soon spread to the rest of the contact line.
As Scott Ritter noted yesterday on Judge Napolitano’s Youtube show, Ukraine’s army is likely to collapse within the next month or three. My own calculations show Ukraine running out of troops at most within 3-6 months – and out of combat and operational effectiveness in probably half that time.
Then Russia will advance, forcing Ukraine to retreat – and an enemy always takes it worst losses during a retreat. It will look like the 1991 retreat from Kuwait – the Highway of Death.
Ritter thinks the Ukrainians may set up a defensive line across the Dnieper and extend the war into next spring. Personally I think Ukraine will be too weak to do any such thing, facing 500,000 Russian troops with probably 1,000 tanks, a 1,000 artillery and full air power and new “swarm technology” Lancet drones.
That’s when we’ll see a slow but steady grinding all across Ukraine to Kiev. Slow only because of the mud and winter and pure logistics.
Military actions can fail. They can be defeated. They can be so badly done they just don’t work.
Sending in our military has for the last 20 years produced nothing for us but one failure after another.
So sending them to the Black Sea to “fix this” is likely to be much like the same sort of response fixed Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and now Niger and Mali and Chad and so much more.
Spare us the military solution done by losers and failures.
The US military is not allowed access to the Black Sea
i think russia will pound the crap out of the place thus making it unusable. zelensky needs to surrender like, 3 weeks ago.
NATO has already lost; 458 Aircraft, 246 helicopters, 5805 UAV’s, 431 Anti Aircraft systems, 11349 tanks inc. APC’s, 1144 multiple rocket launchers, 5918 rocket launchers and 12289 military automotive equipment. Approx. $1 Trillion of NATO hardware.
There is a strategic need for Russia to fight NATO in a war of attrition. Russia will grind down NATO nations until it becomes existential to them. And then sue for peace on Russia’s terms. War crimes tribunals will be a part of that surrender.
No elections, forced gunpoint conscription, anti retreat troops, book burning, banning of free speech, looting of churches, arresting church leaders, government death hit lists, mass murder of civilians, ethnic cleansing campaigns, assassination of peace negotiators, bombing of Nuclear power stations, bio weapons research labs, destruction of Europe’s energy infrastructure, terrorism, kidnapping, rape, torture, massive human rights abuses etc etc etc.
Yep this is a Western war for freedom and democracy right? Up is Down, Black is White its all just big lies after big lies. Hence the state sponsored censorship campaigns to hide the truth.