Russia’s halts Don-Azov channel shipping, affecting grain trade

MOSCOW: Russia temporarily stopped shipping through the Don-Azov Channel, a navigable waterway linking the Don River with the Sea of Azov, three grain export industry sources said on Friday.

The move followed a Ukrainian attack on 13 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov on Friday, including 10 tankers. Market analysts note that up to one-quarter of wheat exports from Russia, the world’s largest exporter of the grain, pass through the Sea of Azov.

One of the sources said Russia’s border guards notified shipping companies that all requests for passage through the Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, would not be accepted from 6:10 p.m. local time on Friday.

The border guards report to the FSB security service. The notification did not say when the halt would be lifted. Russia’s leading grain-producing regions, Rostov and Krasnodar, lie along the Sea of Azov.

The country’s second-largest port in the Black Sea region is located on the Kerch Strait. Russia’s agriculture and transport ministries did not respond to a request for comment.

Euronext wheat rose as much as 4percent on Friday to a six-week high as talk circulated in the market about a possible closure of shipping through the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian petroleum refineries, triggering fuel shortages across the country. Many analysts and international organisations have warned about risks to global grain trade from the war in Ukraine because the Black Sea is used by both Ukraine and Russia for grain exports, although there have been no major disruptions to the grain trade during the four-and-a-half-year conflict.