Maritime Historian Explains Why Russia Can’t (Or Shouldn’t) Target This American Ship Carrying Tanks to Ukraine

gCaptain’s favorite maritime historian and volunteer fire captain behind the popular Youtube channel “What’s Going on With Shipping“ Sal Mercogliano explains some of the issues and provides interesting background on a recent photo showing Bradley tanks bound for Ukraine being loaded onto a ship at a terminal in South Carolina.

The photo was originally posted by the U.S. Transportation Command as part of a news release that the USTRANSCOM is delivering the first shipment of Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine as part of the United States’ $2.85 billion military aid agreement announced earlier this year.

USTRANSCOM is a unified command responsible for providing transportation services to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The recent shipment, containing more than 60 Bradleys, departed North Charleston last week on board the U.S.-flagged commercially-trading vehicle carrier Arc Integrity, which is managed by American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC), itself part of Norway-based Wallenius Wilhelmsen. The tanks will provide the Ukrainian forces with additional capabilities to combat Russia’s invasion.

The photo has sparked lots of conversation online about the rules of war, whether or not Russia can legally sink the vessel, and if sharing information about it whereabouts makes it a target.

Sal tackles these issues and more in his latest episode of What’s Going On With Shipping, which you can watch below:

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