Monitoring the “grain route”

Interesting aerial activity this morning over the Black Sea, off the coast of Romania: A pair of aircraft—a Turkish Navy ATR P-72 (reg. TCB-754) and a US Navy Boeing P-8A—are carrying out two missions in the area, monitoring maritime traffic.

The zone in question is the corridor used by cargo ships navigating the so-called “grain route,” which refers to the path taken by merchant vessels heading to Ukraine (or nearby Romania) to transport grain exported by Kyiv.

In the past, some of these ships have been attacked by missiles launched from Russian units or aircraft. Today, however, the area is much calmer due to the Russian fleet being forced to remain confined to the eastern part of the Black Sea, as a result of ongoing attacks by Ukrainian naval drones.