FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine's success in breaking Russia's blockade of the Black Sea has given it vital expertise to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
" We raised this issue because it is painful and urgent, as we can all see, for the whole world. There is an energy crisis. They know that they can rely on our expertise in this area, and we discussed it in detail. We shared our experience with the Black Sea corridor and how it works. They understand that our Armed Forces have been very effective in unblocking the Black Sea corridor," Zelensky told reporters.
During his recent trip to the Middle East, where Ukraine struck several long-term defense deals, Zelensky made it clear that he didn’t just want to sell Ukrainian weapons. Instead, Kiev is pushing its deep defense expertise as something that would be very useful in the Strait of Hormuz, a key passage for a fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supplies, which is being blocked by Iran in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.
US President Donald Trump is demanding that Iran reopen the strait. He is also insisting that allies help, even as he regularly denounces them and mocks their armed forces. More than 20 countries have agreed to help the US-led effort to unblock the strait, but they are not eager to engage in a bitter war with Iran. Ukraine says there is another way.
It is being praised for its handling of Russia in the Black Sea, where in 2023 Russia blocked Ukrainian grain exports, creating a global food crisis. However, Ukraine managed to sink most of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea and chased the remains away from its waters.
Although the three Ukrainian ports in the Odessa region still experience attacks by Russian missiles and drones, they are visited by about 200 cargo ships per month, said Andrii Klymenko, head of the monitoring group for the situation in the Black Sea region at the Black Sea Institute for Strategic Studies.
“Ukraine managed to create a complex system of protection of cargo ships from all kinds of threats on the sea route from the territorial waters of Romania to the Odessa region. I call it a tunnel ,” said Klymenko.
Ukraine has not gone into detail about its strategy, but the system includes air defense, naval mine defense and joint work by coastal artillery, air force and other units, Klymenko said. A decisive factor was the naval drones used against the Russian fleet.
“As of today, Ukraine’s naval drones are not just kamikaze boats, but also platforms that can carry machine guns, rocket launchers, and FPV drones ,” Ihor Fedirko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Defense Industry Council, told POLITICO.
Drones have also shot down Russian helicopters and fighter jets. In addition to military assets, Ukraine is also involved in insurance markets to ensure that docking in its ports is not too expensive.
In November 2023, the Ukrainian government introduced the Unity Facility program, sharing the costs of insurance for non-military cargo ships in the Black Sea with leading ship insurers such as Lloyd's of London and Marsh McLennan. The program was extended in March. This combination could be effective in the Persian Gulf.
"Right now, Ukraine has a ready-made ecosystem, a fully systemic solution for protecting maritime zones and airspace ," Fedirko said.
Lini një Përgjigje