According to Bangladeshi crew members, their families, and Ukrainian authorities, a missile struck the MV Banglar Samriddhi at 5:25 p.m. last Wednesday, killing one crew member and leaving several others with serious burns. It was the fifth merchant ship to be hit by artillery off the coast of Ukraine since Russia's invasion.
The conflict in Ukraine has severely hampered shipping in the Black Sea, with far-reaching implications for international transport and global supply chains. Several cargo ships have become stranded at the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, according to shipping trackers. According to the London-based shipping tracker Windward Ltd, an estimated 3,500 sailors have been stranded on 200 ships in Ukrainian ports. According to maritime historians, more ships are stranded around the world than at any time since World War II.
As a result, the world's second-largest grain exporting region has been shut down. Ukraine accounts for 16% of global corn exports and 30% of global wheat exports, along with Russia. Since the week before the invasion, global wheat prices have increased by more than 55 percent.
"This shock to global grain supply is the biggest supply shock since OPEC oil cuts in the 1970s," said Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor and former merchant mariner at Campbell University in North Carolina. "It will result in food shortages in the Middle East and Africa, as well as global inflation."
Thousands of Ukrainian and Russian seafarers are stuck in ports around the world, leaving shipowners scrambling to find replacement crews to keep strained supply chains running.
According to Ukrainian port authorities, five tankers and cargo ships have been hit by missiles in the Black Sea and the adjacent Sea of Azov, which are important food and oil export routes. Tankers, container ships, and bulk carriers from Japan, Turkey, Moldova, and Estonia were among the stricken vessels, transporting cargoes such as diesel, clay, and grain.
Russia, which has amassed a flotilla of warships off Ukraine's coast, is widely blamed by Ukrainian authorities. Russia has denied any involvement in the attacks. Russian forces have been launching missiles at Ukrainian ports as part of a plan to seize Ukraine's southern coast, cutting it off from the sea and suffocating its economy.
The Estonian cargo ship MV Helt sank on Thursday after being hit below the waterline, according to the vessel's owner. Ukraine's navy has accused Russia of forcing commercial ships to enter a dangerous area of the Black Sea in order to conceal its own military maneuvers. "Russians [used] the Helt ship as a shield to hide behind it from Ukrainian antiship weapons," the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said on Facebook.
Russian forces have also detained two Ukrainian merchant ships, according to Ukraine's port authority.
Ukraine's meager naval forces are no match for Russia's. When Russia seized the Ukrainian navy's naval headquarters during the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian navy lost the majority of its ships. According to Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov, the navy scuttled its only frigate in Mykolaiv last week to avoid capture by the Russian navy.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization warned on Thursday that any ships in the Black Sea face a high risk of collateral damage. Following requests from a number of governments, the International Maritime Organization announced on Friday that it would hold an emergency session on March 10 and 11 to address the war's impact on shipping.
About a month before the invasion, the last NATO naval vessel left the Black Sea. Moscow has warned NATO not to enter waters it claims as its own.
The International Transport Workers' Federation has declared the waters off Ukraine to be a "warlike area," calling for additional safeguards for sailors. Many stranded crews, according to seafarer advocacy groups, are running low on provisions and fuel.
Ukraine suspended operations at all ports on the first day of the invasion, diverting cargo ships to ports in Turkey, Romania, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, while the Russian Navy blocked transit routes along the coast. Traffic came to a halt. With few daring to travel in the northern Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, global freight rates for tankers reached their highest daily rates in a decade, while insurance premiums in areas affected by the fighting have risen by up to 5% since the invasion, according to shipping companies. According to Windward data, this means an additional cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per voyage.
This strains global grain supply chains, which have already been strained by two years of pandemic-related disruptions. Poorer countries that rely on imports may experience supply shocks. Authorities in Egypt, Turkey, and Syria are bracing for price increases. Egypt receives 85 percent of its wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia.
On the first day of the invasion, the Turkish-owned Yasa Jupiter, a bulk carrier transporting commodities for the American trading giant Cargill Inc., was hit by a bomb off the coast of Odessa.
The following day, the Millennial Spirit, a Moldovan-flagged tanker carrying 600 tons of oil and diesel, caught fire after being hit by a missile, severely injuring two crew members. A rocket also struck the Japanese grain bulk carrier Namura Queen.
"The sailors now have a stark choice," said Munro Anderson, a partner at the London-based maritime-security firm Dryad Global. "Stay and risk running out of food and becoming collateral damage, or sail to freedom and risk colliding with a seaborne mine."
On February 23, the 29-member crew of the Bangladeshi cargo ship Banglar Samriddhi anchored in the Ukrainian port of Olvia, ready to load clay and raw materials for ceramics manufacturing destined for the Italian port of Ravenna.
Third engineer Hasidur Rahman, the primary breadwinner for his family in Bangladesh's rural south, called his brothers to let them know he had arrived and to share some good news. "I'll come home and marry next year," he was quoted as saying. "We're not going to be in Ukraine for long."
Within hours, Russian forces poured across Ukraine's border, cutting shipping along the country's coast in half and stranding the Banglar Samriddhi and hundreds of other ships.
The crew heard distant explosions and anxiously watched smoke rise on the horizon from the deck. "An air attack in the morning... "May Allah save us all," wrote the second engineer, Asif Islam, on his Facebook page.
The ship's owner, the Bangladesh Shipping Corp oration, ordered Capt. Noor-e Alam to sail into international waters, but he was unable to obtain permission from Ukrainian authorities. Hundreds of sea mines had been planted around the port's entrance, according to the crew. "We couldn't get out because the channel was blocked by mines," Mr. Alam explained.
Mr. Rahman began to wonder if he would survive the crisis. His family in Bangladesh was constantly texting him. "We're trying to relocate, but it's difficult," he said in a text message to his younger brother on Feb. 26.
As Russian forces advanced west from Crimea, the fighting became more intense. The crew learned on February 27 that a Japanese cargo ship in Ukrainian waters had been hit by a missile. The crew flew Bangladeshi flags in the hope that it would protect them.
Mr. Rahman informed his family that the Banglar Samriddhi would be stranded at the port. The captain directed that food be rationed.
Diplomatic efforts to evacuate the crew were gaining momentum. Bangladeshi officials in Warsaw were lobbying Ukrainian officials, and organizations representing Bangladeshi workers in Ukraine were planning to drive to Olvia to pick up the crew themselves.
Mr. Rahman climbed up to the navigation bridge around 5 p.m. on March 2 to get better cellphone reception and called his family. He attempted to assuage his brothers' fears by telling them that his work would enable the family to escape poverty. "Don't be concerned about me; I'm fine," he said.
Then Golam, his brother, heard an explosion. The phone line went dead. Mr. Rahman's other brother found out later that the missile had killed him.