Article: Open Up the Port of Odessa

By Joel D. Joseph

Ukraine has been called the breadbasket of the world for good reason. It is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, sunflower oil and corn. However, Russia has been blockading Ukraine's Black Sea ports including the port of Odessa. If the blockade is not lifted, millions of Africans and Asians will face starvation because they rely on Ukrainian grain imports to feed their people.

"Right now, Ukraine's grain silos are full," said David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program. "At the same time, 44 million people around the world are marching toward starvation. We have to open up these ports so that food can move in and out of Ukraine." Before Russia invaded the Ukraine, most of the food produced by Ukraine - enough to feed 400 million people - was exported through the country's seven Black Sea ports. In the eight months before the war began, about 51 million metric tons of grain were exported through these ports. Now because of the Russian blockade no ships are loading grain for shipment from the Ukraine.

The navies of the leading NATO countries, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, should move their warships to the coast of Odessa to force Russia to lift the blockade. This is not an act of war, it is an act of peace with purely humanitarian objectives.

The Russian blockade constitutes a war crime. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) explicitly lists starvation and barring humanitarian relief as prosecutable war crimes. Article 23 of the Geneva Convention provides that food and medical products must be allowed to be shipped into and out of countries at war. The United States and its NATO partners have every right to ensure that food exports are not blockaded to prevent massive, unnecessary and inhumane starvation in poor African and Asian nations.

President Joe Biden, President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Boris Johnson should formally notify Russian President Vladimir Putin that its navies are seeking to enforce international law to allow the export of grain and other food products from the Ukraine. At the same time, the NATO navies should send their warships, and submarines, to the Black Sea to show Mr. Putin that they are serious.

One of the most significant blockades in recent history was not on water but on land. The city of Berlin, divided into East and West zones at the time, was blockaded by the Soviet Union from June 1948 until May 1949. All shipments by rail, road, and water were cut off from the western sectors of the city. For nearly a year, the United Kingdom and the United States carried out a massive airlift operation that brought millions of tons of food and supplies into Berlin. This extraordinary effort overcame the blockade and saved the city. Now we must use our powerful military resources to break the Russian blockade of the Ukraine's Black Sea ports. The Soviet Union did not shoot down airplanes that broke the post-war embargo and Russia will not sink American, French or British ships because Russia does not want to fight a war against the major western powers.

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