Black Sea Grain initiative: bringing lawfare to conventional armed conflict

The Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) signed between Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey under UN auspices reflected continuity of the long-standing Russian hybrid approach to interference with the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. The BSGI was an attempt to resolve the threat of a global food crisis associated with the Russo-Ukrainian armed conflict. It applied unique legal and organizational solutions to create and operate a maritime humanitarian corridor. However, it avoided addressing the fact of the Russo-Ukrainian armed conflict and the applicable laws thereof. As a result, the agreement developed a specific set of rules related neither to peacetime nor to armed conflict regulation, enabling the parties to exploit its provisions as lawfare instruments, thereby negatively affecting the initiative's outcomes. This article examines BSGI implementation to determine the pros and cons of such an approach for ensuring neutral shipping during armed conflicts in the maritime domain.