Three civilian ships ran Russia's blockade of Ukraine – Forbes

That's according to Forbes, Ukrinform reports.

According to the article, this is the first time that foreign ships arrived in Ukrainian ports after Russia's refusal to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

According to Forbes, a flock of NATO aircraft carefully monitored the ships as they sailed toward Izmail. The vessels presumably will load grain in Izmail then sail back into the Black Sea and onward to foreign ports. The Israeli vessel with the ship-tracking handle Ams1, as well as the Greek vessel with the handle Sahin 2, sailed north from the Bosporus Strait, while the Turkish-Georgian Yilmaz Kaptan sailed west from northern Turkey.

Overhead, no fewer than four NATO warplanes patrolled: a U.S. Navy P-8 patrol plane, a U.S. Army Challenger with a surface-scanning radar, a U.S. Air Force RQ-4 drone and an E-3 early-warning plane from NATO. None of the planes routinely carries weapons, but NATO fighters - including Italian Eurofighters and Romanian F-16s - were nearby in Romania.

The three cargo ships made no effort to obscure their intentions. They all switched on their radio transponders, making their location and course visible to anyone with access to the internet and ship-tracking websites.

"Reports of three civilian ships sailing to Ukraine unhindered may suggest that Russia is either unwilling or unable to enforce such searches at this time," the media outlet said, citing the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

On July 17, Russia announced the termination of its agreement with Turkey and the UN regarding the Black Sea Grain Initiative. After that, the Russian Defense Ministry said it would consider all ships bound for Ukrainian ports as military targets.

Photo: U.S. NAVY