For five weeks, almost everything seemed to go wrong for one commercial vessel waiting in the Danube River to load Ukrainian grain bound for Spain via the Black Sea.
First, Russian drones exploded mere miles away from where the vessel was anchored.
Then, heavy congestion on the river led to weeks of delays, costing the vessel’s operator $8,000 a day in extra running costs.
Finally, around midnight after its cargo of over 12,000 metric tons of grain had finally been loaded, Russian drones hit grain warehouses in an hourlong raid at the port the vessel had just left.
For months, ships traversed the Black Sea and the Danube River without incident to load Ukrainian grain and deliver it around the world, even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensified.
Persons:
“, ”, Alan
Locations:
Spain, Russian, Ukraine, Russia