Irish Examiner view: Cuban-style crisis in the Black Sea as Russia blocks food Ukraine supplies

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: 'The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage by the Russian military.' Picture: Kevin Lamarque/AP

Briefings in the US that the Pentagon may send Ukraine sophisticated anti-ship missiles to sink Russian vessels blockading ports in the Black Sea and unlock food on which much of the world depends offer the prospect of one of the most dangerous moments in history since the end of the Second World War.

It ranks alongside the proxy war between North and South Korea in 1950-53 and the Able Archer Nato exercise of 1983 as an example of escalation that could result in a nuclear strike. However, the precedent it most resembles is the Cuban missile crisis when the US threw an exclusion zone around the Cuban archipelago and dared Soviet warships to enter it. We just need a remake of Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction to go full retro.