JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

First, Russia worn out Ukraine’s navy. Now Russia is obstructing Ukraine’s vital grain exports by means of the Black Sea. As Ukraine struggles to rebuild its navy and combat again, NPR’s Greg Myre bought a experience on one in all its few boats.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: I’m on a Ukrainian naval boat within the Dnipro River simply off Kyiv. It’s solely 34 toes lengthy, and it carries just some sailors, nevertheless it packs a punch.

MYKHAILO: We have machine weapons. We have grenade launchers.

MYRE: Mykhailo (ph) is a naval officer on board and, like most army members, provides only one title.

MYKHAILO: I might say that this can be a basic river patrol boat, a kind of you’ve got seen within the Francis Ford Coppola films.

MYRE: He says suppose “Apocalypse Now” with an up to date boat. The U.S. has offered a couple of dozen of those vessels as a result of Russia seized or destroyed a lot of Ukraine’s navy when it first invaded in 2014. Russia largely completed off the Navy in the beginning of its full-scale invasion final 12 months. Ukraine is beginning to rebuild with these patrol boats, however Russia’s management of the Black Sea means Moscow can maintain Ukraine from exporting its considerable grain. And since July 17, that is precisely what Russia’s been doing. Here’s the commander of Ukraine’s navy, Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, chatting with sailors.

OLEKSIY NEIZHPAPA: (Through interpreter) We have to interrupt Russia’s management. The sea is free for everybody. And we’ll make it so appropriately – free for all international locations.

MYRE: Grain exports are vital to Ukraine’s financial system and to the meals provide in international locations all through Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Without Ukraine’s exports, international grain costs are on the rise.

JAMES FOGGO: The Russians have threatened to sink these civilian bulk carriers. I imagine that is egregious.

MYRE: James Foggo is a retired U.S. admiral.

FOGGO: But what are you able to do about it when you do not have a big naval presence within the Black Sea? That’s an issue.

MYRE: It appears exhausting to imagine now, however the Russian and Ukrainian naval fleets operated facet by facet in Crimea’s port of Sevastopol from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 till Russia seized Crimea in 2014. The following 12 months, 2015, Foggo went to Ukraine for NATO Ukrainian naval workout routines in Odessa, Ukraine’s different large Black Sea port.

FOGGO: We tried to help the Ukrainians with rebuilding their navy. It was a giant train. It grew to a really large train, very profitable, a lot of allies and companions.

MYRE: But when Russia invaded final 12 months, Ukraine scuttled its final warship somewhat than danger it being captured by Russia.

FOGGO: Like a knife to the guts. Can you think about a presidential order from President Zelenskyy to the commanding officer to scuttle the flagship of the Ukrainian navy? That will need to have been actually, actually robust.

MYRE: He says Ukraine won’t ever be freed from Russian domination with out some kind of Black Sea fleet, however it might’t really rebuild with the warfare ongoing. So Ukraine is resisting from land. Last 12 months a Ukrainian missile fired from the mainland sank the Russian flagship within the Black Sea, the Moskva. Again, Ukraine’s naval chief, Vice Admiral Neizhpapa.

NEIZHPAPA: (Through interpreter) The Russian aggressor thought they may rule freely within the Black Sea, however they have been mistaken.

MYRE: Since then, Russia’s navy has been cautious of getting too near the coast and Ukrainian missile vary. This warning created sufficient house for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to enterprise out not too long ago to Snake Island, a tiny outpost 20 miles off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. Zelenskyy made the dangerous journey in a small inflatable boat, his solely obvious safety a few different small inflatable boats.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT MOTOR HUMMING)

MYRE: Back on the Dnipro River in Kyiv, the commander of the patrol boat, Anton (ph), explains why he is right here after 20 years on the excessive seas, the place he labored on huge business ships.

ANTON: I used to be only a service provider captain. I used to be a captain of a giant vessel, Bulgaria. I used to be within the United States of America a lot of time.

MYRE: His favourite place to work is Alaska, he says, summer season or winter. Now he solely desires to be in Ukraine.

ANTON: I at all times can discover a job. I can discover different vessel, however I can’t discover one other motherland. They have just one Ukraine. So proper right here, proper now could be the most effective place to be.

MYRE: Though it would not harm if Ukraine bought some greater boats. Greg Myre, NPR News, on the Dnipro River in Ukraine.

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