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The invasion ofUkraine is causing crisis at sea

Russian ships have nowhere to dock, and supply chains will suffer.

The United Kingdom has banned Russian ships from calling on its ports, and the European Union (EU) is about to do the sarne. Toe world's three largest shjpping lines wilI no longer call on Russian ports. Ukraine's ports are closed. Russian's invasion of Ukraine is wreaking havoc on global shipping, which transports 80 per cent of the world's trade. Ships are now sailing the oceans unable to detiver and pick up cargo while some 140 other merchant vessels are stuck in Ukrainian ports, at risk of corning under fire and with food and other provisions runrung low. The rest of the world should care about their desperate situation - if nothing else because the cargo they carry is crucial to our daily lives.

On March 1, the crude oil tanker NS Charnpion suddenly encountered an urgent problem. It was steering toward Scotland's Orkeney oil terminal. Like many other cargo vessels, the NS Champion saiIs under a Liberian flag, but it is owned by Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company, and on Feb. 24 the U.S. government had placed the company under sanctions. Even so, the tanker had the right to make its next port of call, because sanctions don't affect ships that are already en route. But before it arrived, the British government announced it was immedfately closing U.K. ports to Russian vessels. The Champion had to sail on, oil undelivered, to its next port of call, Denmark's Port of Skagen.

Very soon, it won't be able to deliver its oil there either. The EU is expected to imrninently follow the U.K. 's lead and close its ports to vessels owned or operated by Russian companies or sailing under the Russian flag. Canada already has. Switzerland-based Mediterranean Srupping Company, the world's largest srupping company has announced that it's suspending ali container traffic to and from Russia So have the other two members of global shipping's top three, Denmark based Maersk and France's CMA CGM. Singapore-based Ocean Network Express and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd had already made similar announcements. Toe companies will only make humanitarian deliveries, usually understood as food and merucation.

That means Russia will be cut off from much of the world, able to send and receive goods only via primarily Asian shipping companies such as China's COSCO. Ukraine, meanwhiJe, has already been cut off Toe week before the invasion, maritime insurers red-listed tbe Russian and Ukrainian parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, making it difficult and expensive for sbips to sai! through the waters. When Russia invaded last month, Ukraine closed its ports. The country is already running low on oxygen and other merucal supplies.

(Adapted from· foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/07/ ulcraineshipping- supply-w ... )