This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).
About 70 sailors have died since June in attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea, according to the Spanish newspaper El País. The attacks are carried out with drones launched by Russia and Ukraine, and the region has become the deadliest trade route in the world.
According to the newspaper, more than 375 vessels have been attacked over the period. The figures show that the war, which is usually followed through fighting on land, also has a front at sea, where the victims are crew members of ships carrying goods.
Insurers have started to treat the Black Sea as a war zone. In practice, this means that insuring a ship crossing the region is riskier and, generally, more expensive for those who buy the coverage.
What does this change for Brazilian readers? The route is one of the main channels for shipping grain and energy. When insurance and freight become more expensive, the cost tends to reach food and fuel prices in several countries, and Brazil, which exports and imports grain and fertilizers, is following this movement in the international market.
The risk at sea also affects those who work on the ships. The sailors killed were crew members of commercial vessels, not combatants, and they remain exposed as long as the route stays in use.
For now, the tally of deaths and attacked ships is the main picture of the scale of the problem. The classification of the Black Sea as a war zone by insurers indicates that the market already sees the risk as long-lasting, and not as an isolated episode.
Reporting from El País (p. 4, seção Mar Negro).
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