This is John Batcher, conversation with my colleague Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution

who's been watching since the beginning of the war, even before the war in Ukraine. the Russian economy under sanctions and its attempts to leverage

its power in the Black Sea or in some way presses advantage to fragment the European Union and NATO.

Here Michael describes how Ukraine has had great success sweeping the Western Black Sea of the Russian fleet.

This has opened up a lane for Ukraine to get its grain and food out to the world, to the markets.

It's also lessen the pressure on using alternative means to get the grain and soy and corn

out by the Danube River which also meant flowing that

grain and corn into Europe where the farmers protested Michael describes now how all this has

been solved with the anti-ship missiles that the Ukrainians have effectively used to

intimidate the Russian Black Sea fleet so that it's huddled

over way over on the east side near Georgia and Apkazia and Russia itself.

Michael Bernstam, Hoover Institution, on the success of getting food

to the hungry nations of Africa and Asia by the Ukrainian military by the Ukrainian military, by the Ukrainian farmers, and certainly by NATO and

EU cooperating in a fashion that is critical to understand how they've worked together

to keep Ukraine in the fight and to get the food out despite the Russian

interference.

Michael Bernstein.

No longer necessary the secondary crisis was with Polish farmers and other European farmers

because in addition to the Danube there was rail shipments through Poland and

then the Polish farmers saw the cheap trucks and trains with cheap Ukrainian grain and they blocked the roads and

there was a crisis between and country in between Poland and Ukraine so it's it's all pass now because the Black Sea

shipment is back and we can now see the prices. So at the price of the crisis in

...