Grain under fire: Russian, Ukrainian Black Sea attacks threaten food supply

Is the war entering a new phase? Three black naval drones resembling oversized plastic toys struck a freighter sluggishly navigating the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria on October 28. Aerial drones joined the attack, and explosions rocked the Liberian-flagged Contship Jet Monrovia, loaded with more than 400 terracotta-coloured containers. The vessel, travelling from the Israeli port of Haifa to Romania, listed and sank, but all 18 crew members were rescued, Bulgarian authorities said. The drones were Russian, Kyiv claimed, adding that the attack was designed to make the Black Sea unsafe for civilian ships, paralyse Ukraine's exports of grain and further hobble its war-ravaged economy.