Before the ink was dry on the Black Sea Grain Initiative that Ukraine and Russia signed with the United Nations and Turkey in Istanbul last Friday, Russia carried out a missile attack, hitting the major port of Odesa on Saturday. It is not a great start, says Stephen Flynn, one of the world’s leading experts on critical infrastructure and supply chain resilience and professor of political science at Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Building trust is not only key for Ukrainians and Russians, but also for the shipping intermediaries willing to take the risk coming into the Black Sea and working with Ukrainians, he says.
“The bottom line is the actual execution of this agreement is going to take a lot of trust and some considerable levels of complexity and, if the Russians aren’t in a posture, which is really trying to make sure it works, it’s going to be a rough ride ahead,” Flynn says.
