Black Sea security as the white knight for peace?

Executive summary 1
Abbreviations 3
1 Introduction 4
2 Strategic shifts in the Black Sea: can regional coordination succeed? 6
3 Russia’s power play and weaponisation of dependencies in the Black Sea 14 
4 Anchoring stability and connectivity: bridges, barriers and bargaining power 19 
 4.1 Ensuring Ukraine maintains access to the Black Sea 19  
 4.2 Reducing the dependencies and vulnerabilities of the littoral states 22
 4.3 Strengthening regional deterrence through a maritime coordination mechanism 28
 4.4 Black Sea maritime coordination mechanism 32
Conclusions and recommendations 36
Recommendations for the European Union and the EU member states 39