Did Russian Missile Strikes on Ukrainian Danube Ports Target Western Weapons Shipments?

July 27, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—A short but every interesting analysis posted on Slavyangrad yesterday, suggests that analysts may be looking at the matter of Ukrainian Black Sea ports all wrong, particularly with respect to the Russian strikes earlier this week on the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Izmail on the Danube River. The issue isn’t so much ships going to these ports from the Black Sea to pick up grain. Rather, it’s cargo vessels coming down the Danube from Germany loaded with weapons to be unloaded at Reni and Izmail.

“The main flow of arms coming from the U.S. enters Europe through ports in the Netherlands, Germany and Poland, and then gets mainly by railway and road transport to the Polish-Ukrainian border, where it crosses,” according to this analysis, coming from a Russian-language blogger called Starshe Eddie.

“In some cases, however, cargoes travel much further by water. These are primarily cargoes arriving in Rotterdam, from where they often go up the Rhine. Is not openly mentioned where they go, but in general, there is only one way: to the Main and then to the Main-Danube canal—from Bamberg to Kelheim, and farther along the great European river almost to its mouth. This route immediately removes a lot of restrictions that regularly arise during transport by rail and road, where in Europe you often have to deal with some problems. The journey from Rotterdam to the lower Danube, where you can unload in Reni and Izmail, is 10-14 days, and in some cases it is worth it.”

Even a small river dry cargo ship can carry 5,000 to 7,000 tons, not an insignificant load.

“In these circumstances, should NATO get into trouble by organizing convoys across the Black Sea? No, why should they do it, if they can go all the way deep inside their territory,” he concludes. “But it is very useful for us [meaning Russia] to bomb the ports of Reni and Izmail. And not only to prevent grain from being exported from there.”